The life has internal side except the external one, inaccessible to people. The people try to guess only from the closed book. The people are full with desires, but they do not understand the inner content of these desires. For example, not a few would like to go somewhere without knowing why. If I make you to choose a place, you will not know which one namely to choose. You want to be a king without knowing why. According to some people, the best thing is to be a king, but why, what you will achieve by this, you do not know. It is important for you that as a king whatever you want will be fulfilled. I am asking. What will be your position, if you are kings but nobody obeys you? The wish of people to marry hides in it, just the same idea, to become kings and queens and to have nationals – children, who to obey them. — That is it, but what will say those kings and queens if their nationals do not obey them? However, the children revolt against their parents; they do not want to obey them, and they want to become kings and queens as well. The sons and daughters fight against their parents; they want to set free from their guardianship.

I am asking: What happens with the king after his death? — He was buried, a tombstone was put saying that he was a king. Also, the father and mother leave tombstones after them. At the end, one is satisfied with the fact that he was a good student, finished school, worked something. — This is good, but when he enters the other world, the things are taking another turn: the first become last, and the last – first. Everybody wonder how it happens that the clever pupils become last ones. Really, you could not imagine this fact. The world gives us the following explanation. Do you think that by praying three times a day without following the God’s will you will be the first pupils? Who believes in your God? You are a banker, who jingles money for days and you say: Do not speak to me about God. I believe in the money. The cook clatters the lids of cooking pots, opens them, closes them and says: There is, what I believe in. There is no other God for me. You want him to have you a bite, but he told you: I do not give anything without money. How you could reconcile this contradiction?

I say: The strength of the pitcher is not in the external moisture. Water should be inside the pitcher. If there is no water inside but it is wet outside, it is no worth. This is why, if the talk concerns a person, it is not important what is his external life. It is the moisture of his pitcher. When you lift it, you realize that it is light, there is no matter in it. Would you keep at home a pitcher that is out of water? Therefore, the pitcher should be solid and to contain water in it. You complain that you are short of something. — Your pitcher is empty. — What shall I do? I have no servant who to fill in it. — You will become a servant of yourself and fill it in alone. — My legs do not hold me. — You will practice them to hold you. — I am disabled person. — Nothing, you will go to the spring with your crutches and you will fill your pitcher yourself. After that you will through out the crutches and you will bring back cheerful at home.

So, a person could not set free of his difficulties until he does not go to the God. You walk with crutches – they are the difficulties. You have misunderstandings, contradictions – these are the crutches. When you have come back from the spring all the contradictions will disappear. There you will have acquisitions, which nobody could deprive you. You will say that it is a temporary acquisition, a temporary proficiency. Proficiency that has been lost is a temporary condition. It is not a real acquisition. The reality implies going to the God where you had solved forever one of the most important issues. — This is not clear for us, we need more explanation. — No matter how long you were explained, it will remain misunderstood. Here is one clarification. You have got a candle made of whale fat. It is worth, if it is lit. Therefore, if your candle does not burn and you cannot light your way with it, what sense make it that the candle is made of whale fat? The fact that the candlestick is golden, that it is a souvenir of your grandmother and grandfather, it does not matter. The candle should light. If there is no light in the dark night that to lead you, what will you do?

Somebody is said that he does not speak properly. What is the speech? — Light. If the speech does not set free the person of his hardships, like the burning candle sets him free from the darkness that means there is a noise. Not every body can speak but every body can make a noise. Therefore, a speech that does not set free the person from hardships and difficulties is a noise. If you put your hand on the tender knee and cannot draw out the pain, it is not a magic one; it has no power in it. However, if it could draw out the pain, it is a magic hand. People having such hand are said to be doctors. If you have a headache, it is sufficient such a doctor to touch the sore spot and you will recover your health. Not only the hand should cure but the prayer should do it as well. Any pain should be drawn out too by one-two prayers. Not a few of you have the reputation of religious ones, you have listened to lectures, you have read the Gospel, but when an examination comes to you, you cannot pass it. The examination could be large or little one, but in both cases you will fail.

Imagine that you are visiting a friend of yours and you expect to have a good reception of him. It happens that he cannot give you a reception and treat as good as you expect. You return home unsatisfied and whole day long you are grumbling why you have gone to your friend to waste your time. What do you gain from this grumbling? You are saying for your friend that he lacks strength of character, cold-hearted and cannot serve the God. You, who in the certain case, are grumbling, do you serve the God? You are free, you could grumble as much as you want, but your friend is free to treat you or not. From where do you know he could be very busy?

A thief came to a banker and told him: I am a thief but I believe in God. I want you to give me 250 napoleons. — You want much, furthermore, you have not worked anything. — If you do not give me voluntarily them, I have a method by which I could take them. — There is order and law in the country. I am going to call the policeman to arrest you. — I can arrest you before you could arrest me. Before you have rung the bell, you will enter the prison. Before the banker has touched the bell, the thief has lifted a stick, aimed a blow with it in the air and lulled the banker to sleep. After that he wrote him a note:Second time, when a learnt thief comes to you, give him as much as he wants. The learnt thief is the human destiny. It comes to a person and says: You will give me such and such amount. — Give it, and do not make an issue. Otherwise, the destiny will come again, it will aim a blow with the stick in the air; it will lull you and it will take as much as it wants. Before you have coped with it, firstly it will cope with you.

In other words: What God wants of you, give it and do not think about it. Do not deny to the God. Do not refuse to accept the smallest thought coming from the God to you. It could be realized always. After all, do not refuse to fulfill one God’s thought. You say that you have no time. — You will find some time. Otherwise, you will find yourself in the position of that Bulgarian who went to dig his vineyard without praying before. He told his wife: I go to dig our vineyard. Tonight when I will be back I want to find a cooked hen. She answered: Say God willing, if all goes well. — There is no need to chatter to me “God willing, if all goes well or not” I am going to the vineyard now and when I will be back in the evening, I want to find a well-cooked dinner. He has left for the vineyard but he was met by Turks[1] that caught him. They have taken him round to show them the way. He has come back home late, clattered the front door and said: God willing, if all goes well, wife, open the door.

There is nobody of you that was not taken round by the Turkish “deli-bashi”[2]. “Deli-bashi” are discontent, suspicion, failure and hardship in the life. The rich as well the poor pass through them. Only some people relate stories about hardship and the other felt shame to tell about them and do not tell anything. The poor usually tell about their misfortune, and the rich abstain from telling about them. Person should execute the God’s will for coping with his misfortune. His power is in the execution of God’s will. This should happen voluntarily. It means that the man struggled for the real life. Somebody has not executed the God’s will, or he has not lived well; we have no right to deprecate him. To live well, this is a great art. Many know to write and not many write correctly as per the requirements of the grammar. This means that all people live but few of them keep the laws and requirements of the life. For example, an acquaintance of mine masters several languages, but he dislikes working. One day he told me: Do you know what I have done? As I needed money, I wrote to three acquaintances of mine in America asking them to send me some amount. Let us see, how much they are going to send me. The three men answered that they had no money provided for him.

I am asking. Who of you have not written a letter to the God? And what kind of letters you have sent! However, some people obtain answer to their letters, but others do not. Whose is the mistake? — Yours. You will say that your letter is full of mistakes. You are writing to a letter to a banker asking money. Your letter is written without mistakes, with all the punctuation signs required, but you do not receive money. Other one writes a letter full of mistakes and receives money from the banker. — Why — The banker loves him, and he loves the banker too. It means that the letter, as well the words should have a deep internal content and a deep meaning. So, if somebody else reads this letter he will be content. Sometimes a person is happy with his deeds, but sometimes is unhappy. Since he is happy, the people around him are happy with him. You are doing something and you are unhappy. You are saying:- How could I do that? As many times as you remember that deed, you will feel ashamed and unhappy internally.

Contemporary people came to a stage of life when they should give the advantage of the Godlike part of themselves. If they do not do this, they will suffer and will be unhappy always. To be happy and satisfied by you means to be satisfied by the Godlike part in us, by the Divine voice which talks us. Who listens to this voice always will receive a 20-thousand leva cheque. A friend of ours told me about an event of his experience. He had a very bad cold. Doctors examined him, gave him prescriptions but the illness did not pass. One day he heard the quiet voice to tell him: Pray and you will be restored to health. He prayed all the day long zealously and he broke into perspiration so much during the night that he had to change clothes several times. He woke entirely healthy on the morning. Other his acquaintance fell gravely ill too. Also he heard something inside to give him advice how to restore to health. He carried out the advice but did not restore to health. – Why the first one has restored and the second could not? – The first followed the advice of the God’s voice without any doubt but the second had doubts.

People often complaint about the fact that they cannot realize their wishes. This happens both with worldly-minded and religious people. – Why do they not succeed in their life? — Because they look on the things in materialistic way. The religious person says: I do not dare to want something from the God I am not pure and holy. You have a human notion for purity. You are right that you should be pure and holy but the purity and sanctity are God’s properties. Firstly you will connect with Him and after that you will talk for purity. I would like to be a righteous man. — And the justice is God’s power. — I would like to love. — And the love is God’s power. The thing you call love is a shadow of the love. Love that appears and disappears constantly is not true one. It is as like today you are healthy, tomorrow – sick. The love excludes all diseases, all pains. It is not a shame that you are sick and suffering. Sometimes the sin causes diseases that are given for obtaining of experience. And the misunderstood disease leads to poverty. After restoring to health, the person will achieve wealth. Hence, you will learn both, by the health and the disease. If you do not learn, you are looking for the easy way in the life.

Speaking about the inner life, not a few think that they understand it. You say that the life should be good. What do you consider under “good life”? When the life is good there is not a doubt, lack of faith and dissatisfaction. Such person is satisfied even if the world is topsy turvy turned, he does not see any contradiction. I call such person “a person of happiness”. He is a righteous person. I liken the righteous people to the sun rays. — Are there such people on the earth? — There are, of course. If those who live on the Sun were not such people, no light will reach us. You say: What do Sun creatures think of us? — They do not think anything. When they see some unclean, muddy person, they put him in the water to be cleaned. They consider it is a privilege that they can clean and give someone a bath. That is why Christ says: „Larger is the joy on the sky for a sinner who repents himself than for 99 righteous ones.” — Why? — Because these 99 righteous ones think that they are pious and sinless. The sinner however knows that he has broken the justice law and repent of it. He has such experience that the righteous one has not. And when he was lead into temptation, he says: I tried this work once I am not going to join the dance for the second time. You will say that this is a contradiction, the sinner to be familiar with the justice, and the righteous one — not to be familiar with it. — No matter what do you think, the life cannot run without contradictions.

Contradictions come for approaching the man to the God. — Why am I getting ill? — For approaching the God. — Why do I become weaker? — For approaching the God. — Why people hold me in low esteem? — For approaching the God. There is nothing best than approaching the God. — I will lose my freedom.

— Not only you will not lose your freedom but also it will make your life worthwhile. — What means approaching the God? — It means to be present at a table fit for a king; if you are dead to come to life again; if you are ill to recover your health; if you are barefooted and tattered to become dressed in new clothes and shoes; if you are in chains, they will fall down from your hands and feet. Approaching the God means that all negative features in you, as hatred, envy, suspicion — all of them should disappear.

Speaking for the man’s approaching to the God you will say that this is not the right time now. — This is an old philosophy. What is the result of this philosophy? A poor poet had gone in the house of a banker with the intention of borrowing a certain amount of money. When he understood his intention, the banker told his servant: Told him, I am not at home. The poet heard his words and went home. Later, it happened that the banker needed the poet to write something for him; therefore he went to his house. After he had rung the bell, the poet’s servant went to open the door and asked the banker what he had wanted. — I am looking for the poet. At the same moment the poet called out behind his servant: Tell him that I am not at home. — How is that, I hear his voice. — I am here, but not for you. — answered the poet. And you are answered often: I am not here.— It means, I have no time for you. You must have faith both in yourself and in your fellow man. — We have faith. — Yes, your faith is for beginners. With that faith nothing could be reached. The faith of people today is beginner’s faith. You cannot move mountains with it. It is not that deep and absolute faith. The true faith is God’s power. Could you have doubts with such faith?

Someone comes to me asking to borrow him some money. I am putting him to a test. I am telling him. Squeeze your hand. — There is no need to squeeze my hand. You want to give me an examination, but I am not such a fool. You could say so to the others, but not to me. — Once, you do not believe, go away, I will not give you a brass. — But, you insult me. — What should it cost to you to bend your hand? You will have the thing you wanted. You had to do an attempt. If you bend your hand and open it, you would find something in it. — Then, tell us, to bend our hand, too. — I am not saying this to you. I told him this on purpose, because I knew that he did not bend his hand. For bending his hand, a man should know the properties of his thumb and also the properties of other fingers. Power is hidden in the fingers. There are certain conditions in which if you bend your hand something will come though it. The hand power is connected with the rationality in the man. A man could be given an examination as Abraham was examined to sacrifice his son to the God. As a matter of fact did God need that sacrifice? However, Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son to the God. Why and for what was it necessary that sacrifice, he did not consider. But, at the moment when he had to give the offering, he was told: Stop!

So, if our acquaintance had bent his hand, I should have thrashed my hand in my pocket and given him some money. I had done only one such attempt with one Bulgarian who had written to me from America: Many times you had said that there is Providence, but I have not had a case till now to check up whether your words are true. This is something imaginary. Tell me, from your point of view, how could I have my matters straightened out? I have a debt of 205 dollar but I need another 20 for clothes, for books. I am a foreigner; I cannot obtain that money from anywhere. Tell me, how to cope with this situation. I replied him: When you will obtain my letter, you will already have the money. If you have not the money, write to me to be aware of it. He wrote me next week: Yesterday was the happiest day for me. I have got money, do not worry for me. — How does it happen? — I know, how works the law. The man should have a child’s faith. I am not speaking about belief but about absolute faith, for absolute confidence.

A Divine Law exists that satisfies all needs of the life. Each Divine need was satisfied in time. However, first, the desire to complete the God’s Will should appear in the man. Today a man lives for himself only. And if his works do not happen as he wants he becomes discouraged. For realizing his wishes he should follow the God’s will. So, first, you will complete the God’s will, and later – yours.

Many people complaint against their poverty. A man is poor because he does not complete the great God’s law. You will say that so and so is rich but some else – poor. You encounter a loaded horse. Has it loaded itself alone? — No, somebody has loaded it. — The rich man represents such thing. And he was loaded by somebody, and the poor man was unloaded by somebody. As soon as the horse is unloaded, it becomes satisfied, but as soon as the rich man was unloaded he is unsatisfied. There is one load against which the people do not complaint. This is the wealth. If they were put four, even five loads, they do not complaint; there are pleased. They are strong; they carry the loads on their backs and say: We are ensured already.

Let us come to the internal understanding of the things. There is something more essential than the wealth. It is to become conscious of the presence of God’s Love in your soul. This is the most realistic, the most essential. At this Love all contradictions disappear. Strive to understand it correctly. Listen to the quiet voice in you. Prophet Elijah should endure severe trials till he hears the quiet voice of God in himself. He realizes that the God is not in the storm, in the fire but in the quiet voice. As soon as he come to know the God, Elijah ascended to the sky with a fire chariot. Each person will realize the life secrets after he passes through big sufferings and hears the quiet voice of God in himself.

The first order is:„Come to love your God with all your mind, with all your heart, with all your soul and all your power.” „And if God is on our side who will be against us?” You all should be bearers of God’s Love, to be models, to be successors of God’s possessions. As soon as the man does not come to the big spring, he could not understand the abundance of life.

Today I give you to think over 17th line, 22nd chapter, the Revelation. And the Spirit and the bride said: “Come! And who has heard, let him say come, and who is thirsty, let him come, and who wants let him have for nothing the water of Life”.

— The manifested love of the Spirit, the manifested wisdom pf the Spirit, the manifested truth of the Spirit brings the complete life of God, of the United, Eternal God of the life.

_______________________________________

[1] The story happened when Bulgarians were under Ottoman yoke.

[2] ‘Deli-bashi” – undisciplined Ottoman soldiers in the end of XVIII century

While I am reading that Chapter, you are asking yourself: Who had Christ talked about? — About the then scientists — scribes and Pharisees. With that sermon Christ had wanted to show his disciples and other people, which is this thing that hinders the correct development of people. Understanding of scientists that were reputed to be the leaders of the mankind hinders the people. Plain people could not hinder you. That law works today too. The present clergymen and scientists are not better than the ones of the past. — Had the mankind not bettered from the times gone by until now? — There is a microscopical betterment, that is hardly visible. I do not know if the wolf had bettered for a thousand years up to now? At least, I do not know such case. I know no charity society of wolves. If the point is to say something good for the wolf, I could do it. The wolf has never eaten sick sheep. This is a good wolf’s feature. It could pass near hundreds of sheep and it will examine them only and if it turns out that they are sick, the wolf will not touch any of them. After that the wolf will boast: Here is, I passed through so many sheep, and no one of them was injured. — Why? — The wolf has its own considerations. From hygienic point of view, the wolf does not eat sick sheep in order to avoid falling ill. And people, like the wolf, boast sometimes with their virtues.

Talking about that point many people will ask me: To whom it does concern? — Nobody specially. If the clothes on your back are muddy, I shall tell you to clean them. That concerns you. The muddy clothes must be cleaned! — You insult us. — The insult is in the mud itself. If you cover yourself with mud, you insult yourself. Take the mud off your back — nothing more. There is no reason to feel offended and to justify yourself. The more you justify yourself, the more you cover yourself with mud. The mud is the sin in the man. If you justify the sin in yourself, you cover yourself with mud. — But I have not erred. — Do not justify yourself. As you are walking along the streets, you produce the mud yourself. The mud exists in the nature, and a man mixes it by stepping in it. — Which is bad in the mud? — It soils the clothes and shoes. — What is the mud made of? — It is made of soil and water. The mud soils the body often and so, it blocks the skin pores. Many diseases are due to it. When the body pores are blocked, the man breathes with difficulty. That blocking has an adverse effect upon the nervous system.

There are two types of mud: physical or external and psychical or internal. Both types of mud stick to man’s back. When a man is covered with mud psychologically, for him is said that he is a person with a defect. He could not see it, but it is written on his back like an announcement. If somebody tells him that he has an announcement on his back, he answers: I do not know anything I have not put it on my back. — It is not important, who has put it there. It is important that there is an announcement on his back. You are required to take the garment off your back and to take away the announcement. As soon as you take it off, you are free. It does not matter that you have worn that announcement on your back? — Sometimes it does not matter, but sometimes it causes a lot of trouble. Imagine that someone attaches to your back the following announcement: This man is a criminal. He has committed a murder. It is sufficient a policeman to read the written on your back for catching you and taking you to the police-station. You wonder why you are taken to the police-station, why this misfortune has befallen you. That is simple enough; it is written on your back that you are a criminal. You had to take away this sign in time. It is not possible a misfortune to happen to a person if he does not wear his crimes written on his back. Whether you deserve these sufferings and misfortune it is another question, but the sign for your deeds is on your back. You may clear yourself with the policeman as much as you like, he does not care about it. You should establish your identity and give a proof that you are an honest man.

The read chapter of Mathew’s Gospel is one of the strong speeches of Christ. It concerns many people. It cleans as the broom sweeps the house. Christ says: „Woe betides you, Scribes and Pharisees! Woe you, hypocrites!” We could say: „Blessed you, future preachers and priests that speak up for the God’s kingdom.” I could make a new interpretation of all lines of that chapter. Why should I interpret them? — Because the negative should be taken away. If it is not taken away, the positive could not come.

When I talk for Christ, some imagine him to be strict but merciful, other —– soft-hearted, always gentle and smiling. And one and the other are true. He is strict, merciless to those who break the God’s law. If today Christ comes among you what he will tell you? He will proceed with you, the same way as a healer had proceeded in America. He became famous as a big expert not only of diseases of the people but of their inner psychic life. Due to this he did not take up with healing of all people. When some evil, complicated person had come to him, he had told him: Out of here! I cannot heal you. There is no place for you here. I say: A person who kills the good in himself deserves no condescension. I call such person a criminal. — What impedes the person? — His personal life. Today the personality in the man is so strong that the least wry glance or wry smile is able to offend him. Due to his private life the man does not know whether he performs the God will or not. When you have had some trouble, you say: “I have done a sin. - — You have done a sin, but where and how, you do not know. You say, that you are a bad man. It is not sufficient. In what lies your wickedness? Do you lie or steal? — Still worse. — Say, what manifests your wickedness? Talking with general words manifests a proud and vainglorious person.

Once, I travelled by the train in 1914. There was a man in the same compartment who took part in the War with the Serbs and he related for his experience there. One day, he said, I jammed 17 Serbs in a trench who I pricked with my bayonet. Listening to him I thought that they were not dead, nor hens. These Serbs have riffles like you and they will not allow you to prick them. He is speaking and I am smiling. I thought over. The question is another if he found them dead. So, he could prick them. When he saw that I was smiling he said: It is possible they were less than 17, I did not count them. — In my opinion, it is impossible a man to prick 17 persons. That man wanted to boast. What kind of boast is this that he had killed 17 men? The rational beings do not approve his action. This is a crime. Is there a sense a man tmake boast with his sins and crimes?

So,when you pray to God to forgive your sins, say: God wash me, clean me! I will not mention my sins and stain myself any more. Wash me with Your water in order not to repeat my sins again. The feeling of vainglory is hidden in the man. He will confess once or twice, will take out his sins due to his vanity. So, the people could see how he could sin. It is pleasant for the manto take out his sins in front of the God. He wants God to carry him in his thought. Somebody says: I have stollen the money from so many people. I have taken 1,000 leva from this man, and 2,000 leva from that one, and 5,000 leva from third person. I do not know what they will do with me in the kingdom-come. He smiles after that and he wants to pass for a hero. This is vainglory. That man boasts with his ailments. Another boasts with virtues he does not possess. He says: I have not done harm anybody; I have helped many people financially. — He is dying of hunger but boasts that he supported this and that one. He boasts with mere triffles. What has he given? — Two leva to one man, five leva — to another, a piece of bread — to a third one. The more he relates, the more he carries away with his benefactions. I am going to retort to such person saying: Do you know what I have done? As many killed people I have seen on the battle-field, I have encouraged and raised back from dead all of them. — Is it possible? How you could raise back from dead so many people? — As much I could raise them back from dead, so you did.it. It means, what am I, the same are you.

An order exists in the world that should be kept by all. It is the Godlike order — the order of the good. Every one might be a carrier og the good. You say: I have not done good to anybody. — You will do good but I shall do good for myself. You are going to the spring with a glass. Dip out of the water and say to the spring: I am drawing from you, I am relieving you. Otherwise, your water will spill and it will get mud. Here is one good thing. Sometimes the water enters the man in a clean place, and other time – in a dirty place. Then, it is preferable the water to spill along the road than to enter unclean person. This is the inner side of the life. This is the spiritual life. Sometimes in his life, the person yields to temptations, trials. — What presents the trial? — When the man comes up against the good and evil, he comes up against trials inevitably but he does not know what is good and what – evil. You say that one man is good and other — bad. — By what do you know them? The bad is not so bad, but the good is not so good. There is something untrue in both cases. And there is something good in the bad man, and there is something bad in the good man. Whether you are good or bad, these are notices. The notice does not do the things either good or bad. If you dress the wolf in a sheepskin, will it become a sheep? Will it become better? If you dress a sheep in a wolf skin, will it become a wolf? There is a saying: „Wolves dressed in sheepskins; and sheep dressed in wolf skins .” These are symbols. Is that wrong that the sheep has put on a wolf skin? Is that wrong that the wolf has put on a sheep skin? If the wolf becomes better, the wolf wins. If the sheep becomes worse, the sheep loses. But if there is no change, it is pointless to put on in someone else’s skin. If the sheep puts on a wolf skin and feels fear, the sheep is not a hero; and if the wolf putting on a sheep skin started to feel fear, the wolf is not a hero. — Very naturally. When the sinner takes the part of the holy, he will be frightened; and when the holy man takes the part of the sinner, and he will be frightened. The common holy man yields to temptation easily and could become a sinner. However, the perfect holy man — never! He stands above the conditions, nothing could tempt him. There are some conditions under which even the holy could be tempted, also there are conditions under which wou could transform the water into wine. I am saying: We do not need neither the wine of a sinner, nor his meal. I prefer to starve three days but I am not going to eat the sinner’s food. I shall pass by him without being tempted by his food.

There is one position that does not excuse the person. Only he who is in the state to do what is unaccessible to the others, he could excuse. For expamle, could the common person make a precious stone? — No, he cannot. But there are high-developed creatures that have differing view points than the common people. Their thought is as pure as a crystal. It stays higher than all common creatures. Then, he who tries to transform their thought into a common one, as the precious stone into a common one, he certainly will fall into a contradiction. Who could afford to transform the precious stone into a common one? He who does not have knowledge he could be mistaken and to accept the common stone for a precious, but who has knowledge, he cannot be mistaken.

Many people come to me and say: Do not think we are bad people. — How do you know what do I think about you? What give you cause to think that I have not a good oppinion for you? When I look at a person, first of all I measure his height. I say: You are 165 cm tall., you are not a giant of a man. Your hands are soft, slight, not for physical labour. You are not for a hammer and hoe. You are 40 cm wide., you cannot work much. You are not very handsom, the features of your face are not very symmetric. There is no symmetry between your forehead and your nose. You say that your father and your grandfather were that sort of people and you look alike them. — I am not interested in your father and grandfather. You were a copartner with them, and this does not give you grounds to attribute all your defects to them. Today you bear inbred features from your father and mother, but four generations ago you were a father of your father. It means, that what you have inheritted from your father today, that you have inserted in him in the past. Therefore, do not oppose against yourself, against that what you have inserted in your fellowman in the former times.

Do not justify yourself with your father and granfather. Say to yourself: This work is mine, i.е. this sin is mine, I shall correct it myself. If you say that you have been created such sort of a man by the God, you are not right. It means, that God has created you such sort of a man to do evil. — No, you created the evil; you have created the fear, the contradictions, and not God. He creates good things, and that you have created, God bequeathed it to you. He adorn people with their own deeds. He has a treasury where he puts that what you have acquired. And when you come on the earth, He adorns you with what you have acquired, indifferently whether it is good or bad. He says: This is what I found in your store. This is why, if you live well, you store the good in God’s stores, and when you come back again on the earth, you will have what to put on. If you know this, do not complain against your life. Courage is wanted from you. Brave is that one who has no fear of his sins. When you see the sin in yourself, catch hold it by the head and tail and ask it where has it come from. — It has come from somewhere. Hold it, until it make a confession. And when I grip the devil who has done harm to me thousand times, I sit astride it. I tell it: Once upon a time you were a master, now I shall be your master, and you – a servant. Have no fear of the devil. He has a whip but do not be afraid of it. Take its whip and lash davil’s back with it.

It was said in the Revelation: „The prince of this world is tied.” Therefore, until you do not tie the evil in yourself, you will serve to the devil always. Heroism is to tie the devil, i.е. the devil in yourself. Under „tying” I understand to tie the eveil in yourself, but when you become one with the God. As you are in a contradiction with the God, the devil will tie you. — When we shall be free? — When you become one with God. You are asking: How we shall become one with the God? — You have two bottles of water. I tell you: The water of these bottles should become one and the same. — How we shall do it? — You shall take one large bottle, you will pour into it the water of both bottles and it will become one. Once the water is mixed, and you will become one with God. I am not talking about the ordinary firm of every person, but about the mutual firm — servant of God. — I want to be strong, rich. — No, you will become a servant of God. It is better to become a servant of the peace, than a master of the anxiety and turbulence. I prefer to be a servant, to owe nobody, than to be a master with large debts. One day that firm will bankrupt. It is advisable to be a servant who never bankrupt than a master who is foredoomed to bankrupt.

Now I am getting out these notions in order an idea to come into your heads. By this could be seen how far gone you are as disciples. But your progress does not depend on you. What you have reached up to now, it is important; if it should depend on achieving something from this time onwards, all is lost. How far is gone a person it could be seen in his childhood. The child bears his/her talents in himself /herself. He/she was given the possibility to develop his talents in the school. One impulse is sufficient to help for their development. If an untalented person enters the school, he leaves it soon. I am talking for you as talented persons. So, there is no need to ask me if you are gifted or not. Every person was been tested out, in order to know himself. You have to know that nobody could hide himself. All is written in the person. The virtues and vices are written in the man – it is open and above board. It is hidden for the man who does not know anything. But for that who knows, it is all open and above board.

This morning I am going to give you several rules. When you get out of bed, wash well your ears. Regard them as big bosses. They represent a very large firm in the world. Larger firm than theirs does not exist. Any of its clerks make a mistake he goes out of the firm. So as not any to make a mistake, take hold your ears slightly and thank for them. When you lose heart, take hold your ears and thank God for them. Tell yourself: Once upon a time, I was worse, I am better now. If you have ear wax in your ears, ask yourself, why the ears wax was collected there. I know what it means. Clean the ear wax, wash your ears well. Then at least a quarter of your difficulties will be eliminated.

Second rule: Wash your nose well. Even you get up in the morning thank God that you have a nose. You have to know that God has breathed life in through this nose and you have become a live soul. Thinking that the Godlike life has passed through this nose, wash yourself with a sacred thrill. You are saying: Where is God? – God comes in through the nose every day. The nose is a door for the Godlike. By means of the air God enters through man’s nose and comes out through the mouth. And when God comes out you will open your mouth and thank. Thank for having a mouth and for your possibility to say the best words. The mouth is a place which could save the man. After that wash your eyes well and thank for the possibility to see by them the most beautiful things.

The man is an institution financed by four large firms: the firm of the ears – the God’s wisdom, the firm of the nose – human mind; the firm of the mouth – the God’s Love and by the firm of the eyes – the God’s truth. These four firms are included in the Godlike world. If they do not support the man, no work could be completed. You have to understand this matter internally; do not say this to others who could not use it. If you are sorrowful, be pleased with your ears, your eyes, your nose and your mouth. Being pleased this way you will come in touch with the powers acting through the eyes, through the ears, through the nose and through the mouth. If you do not assess the visible things you have how you will assess the invisible ones? You look for God, angels and you do not appreciate the visible in yourself. If you do not know how to manage with your ears, eyes, nose and mouth, angels will not come to you. The angel must see your ears and if he likes them he will stay with you. Afterwards he will look at your nose, eyes and mouth. If he does not like them, he will not have a subject to stop on. Through his ear a man connects with the music of the external world and also with God. This way he hears the silent voice consoling and encouraging him. In this way the life is given a meaning only. The person perceives the blessing that comes by ears, eyes, nose and mouth. The parts of man’s body are blessed!

Read the lecture “The Disciple’s way” from 150—153 page.

People are displeased often with the nature, with that what is given to them. It was given to you much more than what you could use. This is why, everybody may give of that, what is given to him. — How he will give? — Through the eyes, ears, the nose and through the mouth. I am saying that you cannot do a good. — How you cannot? When you see a sick man, hold his hand, take him for a walk on pure air. If you meet a poor man — take him to a concert, to listen to music for a while. He is put out of courage, nothing is a pleasure to him, but while he listens to the music, he will become in good spirits. And you will give a good meal to the hungry man. That is, this all is good. You should not wonder, what good to make to a person? You will give meal to the hungry without thinking that he has no hat and shoes. He might be barefooted and bareheaded; for him it is important to have his meal.

So, you are blessed if you understand why were given ears, eyes, a nose and a mouth. You are blessed if you understand why the sufferings are coming. Christ says: „Woe betides you, Scribes and Pharisees! — Why? — Because you do not understand the God’s Truth. You are blessed if you understand the God’s Truth. Thank for that.

— The manifested love of the Spirit, the manifested wisdom of the Spirit, the manifested truth of the Spirit bring the complete life of the God, of the United, Eternal God of the life.

]]>261Tue, 14 Jan 2014 14:11:07 +00001933_03_19 Good and Bad Wayhttp://en-petardanov.com/topic/435-1933_03_19-good-and-bad-way/Good and Bad Way

Meditation.

I shall read the 26 Chapter of Mathew’s Gospel.

While you are reading the Holy Writ, you say: We understand the Word of God, and when you read it once, you thought that it is enough. It is not so. — Why? —Because the understanding grows up. Your understanding is one kind today, tomorrow — another. Your understanding will be quite different after years. When you were small children, you had satisfied with little; as adults, you are not content with that little. Why the people of today are not pleased with their life? They were pleased with little in the old time. This is one question that is hard to be given a scientific answer. Any wants to be a master, to reign. This is impossible. This makes sense you to reign i.е. to master yourself, and not to govern other people. Moreover, you are not going to govern all your life. It is just as if to get issued title-deed every day that the field you work is yours. Then, you have worked it for 30 years and you got issued 30 title-deeds. It is not needed.

You listen to the religious people saying: We understand the Lord. We have recognized Him already. — You have recognized Him, but you have not recognized the essential. — What is the essential? — The threads with which you are sewing the garment. It is just as if you have good wool you have spun and woven, but you have not threads, to sew the garment with. — Is not it possible without threads? — No, it is not possible, these threads are the way in which the man[1] walks. Without road you could go nowhere. It leads towards a certain purpose.

You ask me: Why we encounter so many obstacles in our life? — Because you have many desires. Unless you get rid of your desires, you could not achieve the truth. For example, a young maid wants to serve the Lord and thinks to get married at the same time. It is not bad, but she could not get these two things in herself. By this reason she comes up against contradictions. Is it possible the school-girl to study and answer the love letters of her sweetheart at the same time? She will answer his letters but she will leave her lessons behind. In the long run, this school girl will finish a school but not the one she started. If he writes her ten letters a day, for a year she will reply to 3650 letters, but what she will gain? He had written her about many different things. For a house, for cornfields, for clothes, for shoes, for drives, for nice meals. And she had replied him the same way but she had gained nothing from these letters. If the young people could realize what they have gained from their letters, they would never write them. — Why? — Because from the letters only empty words and promises left. And the religious people did the same. And they say: We love the Lord, we shall do for Him everything; we shall serve Him with love. — Empty words! You say: I shall turn somebody towards the Lord at least. — How you will turn him? He is not a purse, to be turned inside out. You will try to turn him but it is impossible to turn him. Turning the people towards the Lord, it is not your business. You are required to do one thing: to find threads for sewing your garment. Otherwise, you will be left without a garment. — Why there are no threads? — Because the young man, in order to go out on a date with his beloved in time, he closed the shop earlier that the appointed time. You could not buy threads and you are sorry that your garment will leave uncompleted. The young man says: When I get married I will open my shop in time and I am going to satisfy the demands of my clients. — For him this reason is satisfactory, but is it satisfactory for you? You will be without new garment due to the personal happiness of this young man.

I say: The personal happiness will not solve the issues. If you suffer all day and someone else is happy what do you achieve from this? Does it give meaning to your life? The personal happiness does not make the person happy. In the old ages, an adept studying the Jewish Kabala reached to number ten. For studying the laws of this number well, he decided to marry ten times. He had married a woman and left her soon. Like that, he had married another nine times and every time leaving his wives. When he left again alone he said to himself: I have learnt nothing from my marriages. Why I had to marry? And you will say that this adept have done a large foolish thing — he had married ten times. — But you get married every day. Either you get married yourself, or the other people marry you. Some day you understand the sense of the day but sometimes you do not understand it. The sun rises and sets, and you are displeased all the day and you think that the other people are happy and only you are not happy. You see that people have got what you have not. How you will reconcile yourself with that contradiction? The people have gone outside in the sun. They are glad but you are leaning against two crutches and hardly walking. People walk freely on both legs and you on four ones are not free and you feel like a disabled one.

Under „a disabled person”, in the broadest sense of the word, I understand the one who has disorders in his soul. He was on the battlefield and returns wounded every time. After that you will say that you are healthy. The world is a battlefield and if you are not careful you might be wounded. Where is the Love there are no disorders. Everyone has possibility to display his love in accordance with his understanding.

A priest told me: If I come once again to the Earth I am not going to be a priest again. As many as 30 years I have burnt incense on people and they remained the same. If you ask them to give you 5 — 10 Leva, theу answer they have not. I have burnt incense to hound the devil out of them but I have not hound out none. If you were me, what you will do? — And I will burn incense on them like you. This is said in figurative sense. In the candela there should be fire. Is it wise the priest to burn incense on one hundred dry trees? Do not burn incense on a dry thought or emotions. It is better to put them in the fire to burn out than to burn incense on them. Many people base their life on dry thoughts and emotions. It is one and the same to think that if you become rich then you will put your affairs in order. This is a wrong idea. You will say that you are not guilty for your dry thoughts and emotions. — You are not guilty! — The guilt is in you as well, as in those ones before you who have not solved their issues. Some solved them, and other could not. The fire in the candela should pass in the human heart — and it will start burning with the sacred fire. Incense should come out of human thought! It is required both from the young, and from the old man.

The young differs from the old by this that he falls from height. Without thinking too much he rushes from some high place and injures himself, becomes a disabled person. Since he cannot come back home, he allows other people to carry him. For him people say that he is grown old untimely. And you say: We grow old. — In my opinion, old is that man, who in his young days has jumped from the height and become disabled. There is sense to jump from the height if you have achieved at least something — more strength, beauty and reasonableness. Why do you need old age which has added nothing to you? You will lean against crutches and will wonder how to cope with them. The young man has gone with crutches and thought that he has made life provision for himself. He says: If I do not need them today, some day I might need them. There is sense to use crutches but inside you. These are the Love and the Wisdom. Leaning on these two crutches means that you have comprehended your life. Until you use crutches outside everyone might beat you with your own crutches.

A disabled man with two crutches under his arms had entered into an orchard to pick some fruit. Gardener caught him and told him: Have you asked anybody to enter the orchard? He took his crutches and beat him. You encounter your own difficulties often and you are afraid. I consider the sufferings from specific point of view. You complaint about your sufferings: I tell you: You are beaten with your own crutches. I think how to set free this man from the blows of his own crutches. I told him: You have made a mistake which you should correct. You have entered the orchard where the gardener used to beat. — How shall I avoid the beating? — You will come into the orchard intended for disabled persons where nobody is beaten. —I did not know, that there is such an orchard, I did see such sign. — Next time you will be careful: if there is no sign, there is beating; if there is a sign, there is no beating. Therefore, I told you: Be alert people in order to see the sign. And then, if you come into the orchard with a sign, you will solve your tasks. — Which orchards are with a sign and which are without? Where the person is received with love and where he is received without love? — You will give an answer to yourself. If you cannot answer to yourself, you will stay in your contradictions as if with crutches.

You ask me: Why Christ had to suffer as well? — The sufferings are necessity. Without sufferings there are no achievements. — Is it possible without sufferings? — It possible without sufferings, too. Paganini was asked: Can you play on three strings. — I can. He appeared on the stage and played on three strings. — Can you play on two strings? — I can. — He played on two strings. — On one string? — I can on one string as well. — What about if there are no strings? — He has answered nothing, but he has not appeared any more. Hence, it is possible to live without sufferings, as well, but you will not come any more to the Earth. The life without sufferings is a life of the dried out fountains. You have started on a journey where all the fountains are dried out. This is the bad way in the life. As you want to drink water, you will change the direction you will set out the right way where all fountains are running. — But there will be sufferings. — It is not possible without sufferings. The right way is the way of living and running fountains. Since you have read the sign „Living fountains road”, you will know, that you are on the right way. Where there are no signs, there is no water. The monuments of dead and dried out fountains stood out there.

So, coming down from the heaven, you will go to the right way where the fountains run. If you do not follow this way, you will suffer. This is called karma. The Hindu talked for the karma, but something left unexplained always. Somebody have beaten you, is it karma? If you have knowledge, you could foresee that they will beat you. In order not to be beaten, you should reconcile the facts. Without resignation, one will beat, after that the other will beat for revenging. This will continue without a break. Two persons do not love each other. One say to the other: You should admit your fault. — And you should admit yours. Both of them are touchy and they do not want to become reconciled. Each of them maintains his dignity. Actually, nobody has dignity. Both of them are servants, workers sent to the vineyard to work there. The dignity is in the work for taking the hoe and to dig with it. Only that man has dignity that has finished the school successfully and has acquired something. Dignity has the believer, the loving who makes way to his faith and love. However, to believe, it does not mean to be blind in the life. If you put your finger under the sewing machine needle, it will prick you. — Why you have put your finger under the needle? — For trying how does the machine sew. — Your fingers do not need such experience. — I want to try the evil. — Why you are going to try it? — I am going to try the love and dislike. — There is sense to try the Love, but not the dislike. It will not bring you anything. Do not make this attempt. To try the dislike and love, this is a big attempt. Enter a room and turn off the lamp, after that turn it on again. By trying the light and the dark, you will understand by yourself, what is the love and what is dislike. Where the light penetrates, there is the love; where is the dark, there is the dislike. If you close your windows alone, in order to stop penetrating the light inside; do not blame others for it. If you open them and you do not remember that have opened them; do not blame others for it. Thank God that He has inserted reasonableness in you and you know when to open and close the window. Thank that your heart is lit and the sacred fire of Love burns in it.

Remember: Whatever is the life, it has some purpose. — What is its purpose? — To acquire the Divine essence and to come to that life that has no beginning and no end. As soon as you come to the beginning and end, you will always have some benefit. — I have big sufferings. — Be glad that there is an end of your sufferings. — What is their end? — Acquiring of reasonableness. In other words: the suffering is useful, if you have become more reasonable and sensible; if you have not become such person, the suffering is useless. — How I shall recognize the end of the things? — By the Love. If you love somebody, you are at the end. When somebody comes to love you, I know already, what will be the end — he will stop loving you. Then it will be your turn — you will love him. So, you will understand why he has loved you. The words I am talking for the love between the people, concerns both for teachers and for students. The teacher teaches his students during the class period — it means that he expresses his love to them. After that he leaves the class and goes home. Must the students cry that their teacher has left them? — No, they should love him now. — How? — By learning the taught lesson. The sufferings of people due to the fact they have not learnt the lessons taught by the teacher. The drunkard does not learn his lessons well and seeks the reason for his ill luck in other people. — No, the reason is in him. He goes to drink from a pub to another until one day he sobers up and understands that all his punishments and sufferings do not come from the God, but from the bartender. The world where we live is a great school. However, many people take the wrong way. — Why do they make a mistake? — Because they do not see any signs. Everywhere they enter — in orchards, in houses, in schools, nowhere is a sign. They start some work — again without any signs. And, at the end of the day, they do not know, who teaches them, what they study etc. Be alert to know where you were enrolled and what you study.

I talk to you often for execution of God’s will. You ask me, what the God’s will is. — To warm yourselves in the sun. — May we warm ourselves in the fire? — You may in the fire as well, but only in the fire of your good friend who loves you. If you warm yourself in a fire of a person who does not love you, you will be in a contradiction. However, this concerns you[2] not the people in the world[3]. Only the sun of life, i.е. the Love solves the difficulties and contradictions. — And people could solve our difficulties. — No, only God in the people solves the contradictions and difficulties. Under „God” I understand the Love. Where is the Love, there no contradictions are possible. — I want to live without contradictions and sufferings; I want to be a learnt man, to know more than my close relatives. — And this is possible, but under other life conditions. There, the devil knows much, but he is unhappy. — Why the devil is unhappy? — Because he has broken his relation with the Divine World. You cannot live outside the God and to be happy. Since you are on the Earth, you will rely on the God and not on the people. The son relies on his father’s wealth. He does not learn and work anything. One day the father dies and does not leave anything to his son. The son is disappointed as he realizes that he has no money in his pocket and becomes a servant.

Rely on the Divine in you, it will help you. If something comes from outside, from your father, thank for it, too. I do not say that you should not rely on the people. We are going to rely on them, too but we do not rely on their wrong views. To escape from the people, it is extremes. Relying on their right views this is a matter of course. Using the experience of other people, this is a common thing. Therefore, be friends with people, have a good look at their life and be taught by it. You should help each other. I have heard the talk between two disabled persons. One said: I was on the battlefield; I fought for my fatherland but I was hard hit; I was injured in the arm and I become disabled. The other said: And I have fought for the people but I was injured in the leg. Both are disabled persons and they ask each other why they have to fight. It is not bad that they have fought. It is bad that they suffer now and they cannot realize their suffering. Today they are said to be heroes, but they are not. They feel sorry that they have been on the battlefield and that they have become disabled for the life.

One father told his child: Son, go to light the fire in the fireplace, all is ready: and the fire wood, and kindling wood. Only strike a match and the fire would be lit. The child took the box of matches but he goes to the barn and he lights the hay. The fire spread the neighbouring barns and causes big fire. Many of present people are such children —instead to light the fire in their fireside, they light the barns of other people. When they realize what they have done, they ask for help other people to extinguish the fire. A sister told me: I do not know, what to do, there is fire burning on my head. I cannot live among the people any more. — You cannot, because you have lit their barns. You se the fire and you do not know what to do. You do not do right. There is something that you do not understand. You get into bad ways in the life, but you think that you are into the right ways. Go back and take the right path. — Am I the biggest sinner? — That is not the issue. Sometimes the small faults produce bad effects. One young sister asked me what are the life’s joy and sorrows like. For understanding me I gave her the following example. The joy and the sorrow are two lakes. If you enter the Sorrow Lake you will suffer. If you come out of it, you will feel small joy. If you enter the Joy Lake, you will feel big joy. Coming out of it, you will feel small sorrow. Therefore, stay far from the Sorrow Lake for feeling small joy. If you are looking for big joy, do not come out of Joy Lake.

When people have not succeeded in their life they will always find something to be an excuse for this failure. The old man says: Well now, if I were a young man, it will be different! The young man says: I am still young; I have to have the time of my life. When I grew old I will think for the next world. — There is no need to think for the next world, but either as a young, or as an old man, you have to lead a good life. The law is one and the same for both of them – for the young and for the old man. This is incorrect understanding of life to think that the old should lead one type of life and the young – another type. If the old man enters the Sorrow Lake he will suffer the same way as the young man. If he enters the Joy Lake, he will be glad as the young man.; the moments of suffering and joy are inevitable equally, both for the young and for the old. Why do Sorrow Lake and Joy Lake exist, do not ask. Why do wealth and poverty exist, do not ask as well. If you do not want to be a poor person, stay far from the poverty. — But it will come to me. — No, the man goes by himself to the poverty; it never comes to the person. If you do not want to become an ignoramus, stay far from the ignorance. The man goes by himself to the ignorance, and ignorance does not come to him. An eminent learned man married for a young and beautiful girl but they did not live well. He has taken to drink with sorrow and he has sold all the books in his library in order to have money for wine. Soon he has lost his knowledge and has become an ignoramus. And contrary, the ignoramus could become a learned man. — How? — He is hard-working, he saves money and buys books. He reads long hours, self-educates and acquires knowledge. It depends on the man if he will become a learned man or ignoramus.

You say: I could easily become rich or learnt man, but how I will acquire the love? — And the love could not be acquired at once. It is like the light. It easy to turn the key of the light, but how long it was worked since that light was achieved. — But the Love comes from the God. — Right, it comes from the God, but time is needed to create in yourself the conditions for Love’s coming. As little is your Love today, thank for it. As little knowledge you have, again thank. Some people come to me to complain that they are not beautiful ones. You are right. In the past you were beautiful, but you have fallen into a deep sleep, and during this time somebody has painted you, he has put such colours on you that have lost your beauty. Now nothing is left but you have to work on you for changing these colours. God has inserted in you cosmetic means and you could recover your beauty with these means. Working on you, you will remove those conditions that make you ugly. The human soul is beautiful. The things that make you ugly are the shadows of the life. Love the Truth with all your heart and you will become beautiful. The beauty is a sign that you beloved the truth. He who applies the beauty for his development, he will be blessed by the God. This means he will become rich, learnt and strong man.

Remember: You have to learn many things still. You want to go in the sky, but the way you are made now, even you go there, you do not understand anything. — What are you going to do there? — We shell be thought by the angels. — Yes, but they do not like people who think that know all. Angles like people with dawning consciousness looking for the truth. They will not come as preachers, to persuade you. There are people appointed for preachers. When the angel came to Zachary to announce him that he will have a son, he does not believe it. The angel did not convince him but told him: You will be dumb until the birth of your son. Until you have faults and flaws, the angels will not take care with you. They are severe, categorical. If they see a dead person, they give orders to bury him; they do not take care for dead. The dead person will pass through sufferings in order to become clean and after that he could rise in the heavens. And Christ had passed through sufferings, because he understood their sense. He was affected for the mankind and he stood their surety. Christ had drunk up the bitter cup, but he understood the deep meaning of suffering. The mankind could not be saved without Christ.

Knowing this, do not become again slaves to the world. You look for happiness on the earth but you cannot find it. There is no happiness on the earth. If you look for happiness, you will find it only in the God. There is no happiness without God, without light. I have heard priests to say: We feel like to take our leaves to the forest and to run away from the people. — No, you will serve the God and you will do His will. There is a beautiful world. The happiness is there. He, who wants to become a member of this world, he should be a hero. Suffering many hardships and passing through all storms, he will reach the harbour and his life will be joy. If you live under the best conditions you will suffer some hardships. Keep the God’s law. God have not stopped loving you. Apparently He might move away from you. His purpose is to make you to think. — Isn’t it possible God to be all our life with us? — The sun does not shine all 24 hours. Despite, it rises in the East and sets in West. The God’s Love is displayed at dawn, but human love at sunset. Then you will light your candle and you will read. This is your love to the God. In the morning the sun will rise again and the God’s love will be displayed again. If you want to live in uninterrupted love, you have to rise in the highest sky, where there is no sunset and where the sun shines all the time. But on the earth, the sun rises and sets; as soon as it sets, the moon appears. The sun light is one type, and the moon light is another.

Now you want to be happy. Since you could not obtain the happiness, you think that the people do not love you. You say: Why the people do not love me? Why I cannot achieve my wishes? — You are not the only man who has not achieved his wished. A day will come when you will achieve them. Do not lie yourself that you will achieve all your wishes and will be happy. Now it is time for work. After finishing your work you will be happy. You work suffering and being glad. He who wants to be happy earlier, he will lose even what he has.

Christ said to Peter: „Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Not only Peter had denied Christ. And also Judas had denied Him, selling Him for thirty pieces of silver. And the other disciples fled. At the end, both Peter and Judas were sorry and remorseful. Judas even hanged himself. And today many of the Christians give up on Christ. They say: We do not want to follow Christ’s Teaching. — This is Judas’s life. — Yes, but after that, misfortune will come also for them. A day will come when even they, like the Christ’s disciples will be remorseful. Until that time, it is required everybody to work on themselves. Get down all your talents and abilities to work. And whatever you do, God will turn it into Good. Be grateful that your eyes and ears are open. Be grateful that you have the possibility to achieve the great aim of the Life. What is the great aim you will understand it when you climb up the high peak. Whichever way you were described the Light Future, you could not imagine it. It will atone for all your sufferings you have passed through. Open your windows so that more light to enter. Light your fire and prepare yourself sop[4]. Wash yourself properly, have a bite to eat and thank for all given to you. — Will the world come right soon? — If all people act this way, the world will become all right easily. Let everyone lights his fire, puts on his clothes and goes outside into the light and everything will be all right.

When you listen to me talking this way, you ask yourself: Who is going to rise into the heaven? — Everywhere, in all countries all over the world, there are candidates for the heaven. You want to know if all of you will enter the God’s kingdom. I shall express figuratively: I am sitting near the fire. The trees are asking me what will happen with them. — It is very simple, all of you will burn. — We are not moving from here. — You will be put into the fire and will turn to wood ash, nobody will ask you whether you want or not. And I am telling you: All of you will transform and not to wood ash. The frozen water will turn to liquid; the cold air will turn to warm air; the seed that did not come up will germinate; the blind will start seeing; the deaf will start hearing; the dumb will start talking; the lame will start walking; the sick will get up from the bed, and the uneducated will acquire knowledge. Let us thank that we are at a school, where the all goods and blessings expect us. What it was until now? You have gone to school, you were given poor marks, D marks, C marks, and you almost have not obtained excellent marks. These are temporary works. F marks and poor marks could be mended. F mark is a horse, get on its back. Poor marks are a pair of harnessed oxen, get on the cart. D mark is a free horse - let it run in the forest. C marks are two pairs of oxen, and the excellent marks – three pairs of oxen that plough up the soil deeper. Then the field bears more. This means, the heart and the mind to start bearing, the ugly sights to be eliminated in the world. You have to free yourself from many things. When you enter the reasonable world you will unite and you will be set free from your faults. One day when you meet on the Earth, you do not see your faults. This means to become beautiful, your faces to start shining.

— The displayed love of the Spirit, the displayed wisdom pf the Spirit, the displayed truth of the Spirit brings the complete life of God, of the United, Eternal God of the life.

[1] Man – the Bulgarian word chovek signifies a thinking and conscious human, without reference to gender. The current translation uses English equivalents such as person and one wherever possible. In certain instances the word man is used instead. The use of man, he, his, him in reference to chovek are used to facilitate the reading of the text, however they should be interpreted as an indication of both the feminine and masculine genders.

Human life will complete its development on Earth when people attain perfection. Just at hearing the word “perfection” some get immediately discouraged. Being perfect is a very high ideal. How will you achieve it? It lies in your attitude. When is a house considered ready and finished? Only when it has been lime washed on the outside and inside, and has been duly cleaned, mopped, and furnished, so that people can move in and live in it. In the same way, someone becomes perfect after attaining Love, Wisdom, and Truth; and when possessing Knowledge, Life, and Freedom. Some people think that perfection means the end of further development. This is not so. In reality, the perfect ones need to work the most. Serving others, they see the level of their advancement and what is still needed.

In the absolute meaning of the word, perfection does not exist on Earth. The perfect one has opened up, but he says as Apostle Paul did that we only know a part of the answer and yet we like to philosophize upon it.

Perfecting oneself is not a mechanical process. You say, “I want my eyes to open, I want to become perfect.” This is quite possible. However, “opening the eyes” in its true meaning requires inner work. Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth.”[1] The meaning of this is to have communion with God - nothing can be attained without this communion. How will an ailing person get well, if he is deprived of air? No matter what you tell him, there is no life without air. You may encourage him, recommend him books to read and study, yet he will not achieve anything as long as he is bedridden. His illness will continue to trouble him. He says, “I am ill, so I am not interested in the future.” First, he needs to free himself of the illness that makes him suffer. You have all experienced this. While you are suffering from some illness, you go through various states every day - and you change every moment. This applies even for the most advanced ones. The inner torment that is endured cannot be explained. Even angels are unable to completely free themselves from suffering and from time to time are affected by it. Of course, that refers to the imperfect angels.

Christ says, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”[2]Are humans capable of being perfect as God? If left on their own, they can never be perfect. However, in oneness with God the human being can attain perfection. The contemporary life of humankind is far from it, but one day when people connect with God, they will become perfect.

God has been revealing Himself through humans, but He is not abiding in them yet. His promise is, “I shall abide in you and you will become one with Me.”[3] This implies perfection. Today every person gets sometimes disheartened, discouraged. Why? It is because of unachieved perfection not only by the individual, but also by all humankind. People are interconnected as one whole. For this reason, they bear their joys and sufferings together. Therefore, one cannot experience joy alone. The joy of one is related to the joy of all. If someone in the family - either mother, father, or child is ill, can the others be joyful? They may pretend, but deep inside they will feel anxious and worried. This is due to the anguish of all humankind. Fallen spirits also turn to people and ask for help, thus bringing great sufferings to them. Their thoughts are received as by radio and make you sad. Will you be calm, if you catch an SOS call from a sinking ship on your internal “radio”? You are far from the ship, let’s say ten kilometers away; but you hear the passengers’ cries and you cannot help them. How will you feel then?

People of today are much like those two Americans who faced a grave accident when boating at Niagara Falls. They were drunk and lost control over the boat. The boat hit a rock and smashed to pieces. One of the Americans climbed onto the rock which pointed at the two countries: Canada and USA. The second one was swept by the current over the waterfalls. There were people watching him from the shores and although they wanted to help him, they did not know how to do it. They were searching for some way, but were afraid of drowning themselves and that made them indecisive. The situation got really terrible. The first American stood on the rock amidst the rumble and roar of the water. He saw his friend being swept by the waves and being totally helpless. I ask: what have these two Americans experienced? If you have never been caught in similar situations, you cannot really imagine the effect of the waves of Life. If you are far away from the waterfall, it will be easy for you to speculate. Back to the story, the rescuers finally succeeded and saved the first American who was on the rock.

Modern humankind is likewise on the top of a rock. If no rescuers come, the human race is going to listen to the roar of the waterfall without hope for salvation. You ask how the first American was saved. The rescuers threw a cable from the shore to the rock. Then they pulled the person to the shore and saved him.

Do not hold that gloomy picture in your mind. Why? It is because the darkness comes whenever one is ill and suffering. The true Life is where there is not the least darkness. However, diseases exist both in the physical and spiritual worlds: the point is to heal yourself without any trace of the illness leaving a remnant on you. It is said in the Scriptures that whoever stands upright must be careful not to fall.

I ask why they did not save both Americans, but only one of them. You say that God can save us all, if He wants to. That is true. God wants the salvation of all, but not all can be saved. The second American was so drunk, that the rescuers could not help him. The American who was on the rock was soberer and held on until he got help from the shore. Sometimes people get so intoxicated that no one can save them from misfortune. They wander here and there blindly. One day someone disappears and cannot be found. What has happened? You will say: he has passed to the World beyond. We know where he is - buried in the ground. His relatives and friends say though that he has gone to Heaven. It means that the visible person - the physical body - is in the ground, while the invisible one is in Heaven.

You say, “I do not want to live.” Why? It is because you do not understand the Laws of Life. The outcome is determined by people themselves. One should not be forced, but live by a natural impulse and free will. That is the Will of God. That one will be saved who absolutely observes God’s Will. Therefore, whoever has a profound inner desire for salvation only that person can succeed. Every mindful human desire is an expression of God’s Will. God manifests Himself through our desires, and the One Who awakens the desires in us is God.I have told you many things today, which you need to apply like the one who makes use of becoming literate. Otherwise, if after learning how to read and write, you give up further studies, that will hold up your development. Continue to read and write. You must communicate with your mother, your father, and with your friends, too. “But can I not continue without this?”, you ask. No, it is not possible. When you can read and write masterfully, you will also lead a meaningful life. Beautiful handwriting implies that you lead a pure, beautiful life which reflects the written content. Therefore, what we write is the content of our lives. All beautiful things we insert are saved in our inner archives. Whatever is written on Earth follows its author. Whatever you put down, create, and do remains with you. No one can deprive you of your creations and achievements. Whatever you learn from others is helpful for your development. But only what you have achieved by yourself is truly important for you and makes you strong. Only in this way does one become perfect and free.

Many people ask me various questions, but I do not always answer them. “Why should we trust God and love Him?”, you ask. I will not answer you. Why? It is because the trust and love for God is in the natural flow of things and does not need speaking out. When you love God, you will study. “I love my teacher, but I do not want to study”, a student says. This cannot be. You cannot love your teacher without studying. If you love him, you will study his subject with love. Learning cannot be replaced by love. Love is love, but you should study. “I love this person.” If you love this person, you should study. Love and learning go hand in hand. True, when you love, you can learn; if you do not love, you cannot learn. Learning is not possible without love which leads to my conclusion: whoever does not study does not love.

And so, Love for God is a great power for achieving perfection. It is actually impossible to describe what Love is and what perfection is. Can you take a picture of the entire Earth? This is as possible as the description of Love and perfection. If you can photograph the one hemisphere of Earth, the other one will be missing. However, there are Beings of such an expanded consciousness that they can embrace the entire Earth. They see it simultaneously from all sides and even penetrate into its core. Is this possible? It is possible for the perfect one, but not for the imperfect one.

A young man was walking to a country wedding. On the route it started raining heavily. To avoid getting wet he stripped himself naked. When he was about to enter the village, he dressed in the nearby forest and continued his way. People in the village asked him how he could remain dry in the heavy rain. He replied, “I walked very fast, so fast that the rain did not reach me.” In reality, he had found a smart solution to this problem. But he hid the truth not to admit that he walked naked. It is curious how he got the idea to take off his clothes and prevent them of getting wet. Adam also became aware of being naked, but only after his wrongdoing. Therefore, one needs knowledge to avoid wrongdoings in the same way as the young man protected himself from the rain.

What do people of today need? Growth and development. This is the ideal of the human soul. Perfection of the human being comes through spiritual growth and development. All who followed the path of the high ideal became perfect. Christ came to Earth to fulfill His mission. Thus he attained true perfection. The one who wants to become perfect should fulfill the mission which God has assigned to him. We have the example of Christ for a sublime service. Christ said to His disciples, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”[4] What is this food? Doing God’s Will. Everyone should have such a powerful idea, serving as a focal point for his spiritual world and keeping his life in balance. Such a sublime idea will really empower the human being. It is a foundation and fortress for the human life. It makes one strong and unshakable. Without holding such an idea one sways in life as a ship rocked by the waves which causes seasickness. A medication against seasickness was recently invented in Italy. Modern people should not sway any more.

Now I introduce to you the path walked by the perfect ones. You will walk the same path facing many contradictions which you should ignore. When you read about the life of Christ, Job, the prophets you see examples and ideas of how to move forward. Why did Christ suffer? Why did Job suffer? Whatever questions you ask, the answer is one: suffering is inevitable. You may say that the devil makes an exception. The devil suffers too - he also walks the path of suffering. Someone has broken his leg. Still, he needs to move forward. You say, “But he cannot walk.” When his leg gets better, he will continue on his way. The important thing is the correction of one’s errors. Someone says, “I do not feel well, I am nervous, I was born like that.” Rejoice that you were born that way. How would you live, if you had no nerves? The distinguishing feature between humans and animals is the nervous system. “I am neurasthenic.” There is nothing better than this. “I have become very sensitive.” But that is what makes you human. “I think a lot.” That is even better. “Where will all this end?” It is not your concern - because God is the beginning, you are the end. When you unite with God, this will be the end. It is just the beginning now. Therefore, the human being should take the last place, in other words, the end. Everyone should be the end, or the Omega, while God is the Alpha, or the beginning of things. You say, “But I do not want to be at the rear.” The best thing is to be at the rear, or to be the tail. The tail is that directs the movement of the fish. The propeller that drives the ship is at the back. Hence, the humankind is the end of things, and the human being is who puts the Divine Ideas into action.

Apply this: serve God in Spirit and Truth and be perfect. You ask, “Can we be perfect?” It is up to you. Where there is a beginning and end, there is perfection too. Where there is neither beginning nor end, perfection cannot be expected either. Since God has sent a soul to the Earth, it is capable of becoming perfect. When you become perfect, you will enter the World of Ascended souls. Your Advanced Brothers will recognize you there as being perfect. If you do not become perfect, you will need to study for a long time on Earth. You will descend to Earth, and ascend to Heaven until you finally finish your development. The Wheel of Incarnation will turn and turn over until you attain perfection. Only through perfection you will free yourself from this Wheel. In other words, you will incarnate and be physically born until the day of your perfection. The person who is tightly attached to Earth will need to incarnate many times until he finally begins to desire perfection.

Christ says, “But the hour is coming, and now it is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”[5] And now, I would like you to reflect all day long upon the idea of serving God in Spirit and Truth.

The manifested Love of Spirit, the manifested Wisdom of Spirit, and the manifested Truth of Spirit bring the full and abundant Life of God, of the One Eternal God of Life.

There is a beautiful side in the reading of the Word. It lies in its comprehension. In the comprehension of things there is variety, while in the lack of comprehension, lies all the monotony of life. Man may regard the world from four different points of view: first, he may regard the world through, a small opening; second, he may regard it through the windows of his house; third, he may regard it outside of his house, and, lastly, he may regard it from a height - from above. These are the four ways for comprehending the Word. Therefore, you must distinguish the inner comprehension of the Word from an external, or literal comprehension of it. When someone says that he has read and comprehended the Word, he must know that the Word is expansive as the world. It says in the Word: "All things were made by Him." This means that all the manifestations of life as a whole are effected by the Word. He who comprehends the Word, comprehends all the external and internal processes of life. No process whatever can take place in the human soul without the Word. The soul is an environment through which the spiritual world, i.e. the world of reality, is manifested. Therefore, the spiritual world is manifested through the spirit, the soul and the body. The physical world, on the other hand, is manifested through the mind, the heart and the will. Men are slowly beginning to regard the soul and the spirit as a reality and the body, as the fruit of their activity. The mind corresponds to the spirit, the heart - to the soul, while the will corresponds to the body.

The text I read in the Scripture is connected with a great soul – with Christ. You can not understand the Scripture, if you are not connected with the One out of Whom it has issued forth. If you drink water far from the spring, there will be much deposit in your idea of it, while if you drink at the spring, your idea of it will be perfectly clear. In this way, you will know why, at times, you do not have a clear comprehension of things as they are in their primary state of purity. There are things in life which deceive men. These things are nothing but their external wrappers. These wrappers are the product of past generations, who not being able to comprehend the questions of life, have left them for a solution to the future generations when conditions would be more favourable. Men of today act in the same way. When they want to preserve something valuable like money, wheat etc. they hide it in a secret place - they bury the money in the earth, while they place the wheat in a barn. In such a state, neither the money nor the wheat is properly utilized. Why? Because the wheat left in the barn and the wheat sown in the field are two different things. The wheat left in the barn, gradually decreases its worth: either insects attack it, or mice spoil it and in the end there is not any increase, while the wheat sown in the field passes through suffering, but it increases its amount. In this sense, the wheat sown in the field can be compared to a suffering man. The man who suffers passes through trials, like the wheat, but acquires something in the end. The wheat in the barn does not suffer and has no trials, but it does not acquire anything. The wheat in the barn and the wheat in the field are two symbols for whose comprehension a number of explanations are necessary. The millions of grains of wheat in the barn press one another for when the master comes, he stores the wheat inside and goes away. He leaves it to the grains themselves to get in order, but they can, establish among themselves no order whatever. However, grains of wheat, placed in the Divine barn, do not press each other, but everyone of them has its proper place. They are arranged in a system as the books in a library. Everyone would wish to be a grain of wheat in the Divine barn rather than in a human barn.

So I say: in life there are some things desirable and others - undesirable. There are desirable things, which belong to the external life, while there are other desirable things, which belong to the inner life. And inversely: there are undesirable things, which belong to the external life, while there are undesirable things, which belong to the inner life. It is desirable, for instance, that a man should be well-dressed outwardly. It is undesirable that he should be naked with ragged clothes and shoes. It is desirable for man to have bread to eat and undesirable that he should stay hungry.

Now I shall give you the first article of "the future creed of humanity": I believe in the Only Sacred bread, which all men eat and without which no man can live. Every religion, every doctrine must start at this point. He that does not believe in the Sacred bread, does not believe in anything and nothing can become of him. You must believe in the Sacred bread and you should taste it three times a day. You should caress it with your hand, kiss it with your mouth and say: The Sacred bread - that is my creed. You can philosophize as much as you wish; you can believe in anything you want to, but in the end, you will test the first article of "the creed of humanity." You say: - I believe in God. - How can you believe in God whom you have not seen? God - that is only a word. To believe in the Sacred bread, has sense and meaning, since you have seen and tasted it. That is exactly why Christ says: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven."

Thus, the power, the knowledge of man lies in his ability to distinguish and select the desirable from the undesirable things. It is important that man should know what his soul desires and what it does not desire. The important thing for man is that which he can not do without, that which is not essential to him is only a loss of time. It is desirable for man to put on new, well-made clothes. It is undesirable for him to go naked, but if he does not wish to clothe himself, nakedness itself will come upon him. It is desirable for man to be healthy, but if he does not desire to be healthy, sickness itself will find him. Men themselves must seek health, while sickness itself finds them. Health is a natural consequence of the observation of the first article of "the creed of humanity." This is not the creed of one nation, but of all nations; it is not the creed of one man but of all men over the whole face of the earth. This is the creed not only of all men, but of all angels, of all gods who inhabit heaven. All believe in the Sacred bread, which is their food. This is a symbol which includes everything which the living beings - men and gods - have tasted.

You say: But can we not do without bread? He who says that one can do without bread, is an unbeliever. What is unbelief? He who does not eat is an unbeliever; he who eats, is a believer. He that eats, he that clothes himself can be called a believer. Let anyone attempt to call such a man an unbeliever, he will immediately say: How is it possible for me to be an unbeliever when I taste the Sacred-bread three times a day? I believe in the Only Sacred bread. - This is the simplest definition of the idea of God. Contemporary people discuss the question of what God is, but all discussions all philosophies on this question have not contributed anything useful to humanity. These philosophies are good, but they have their place. You can read what the philosophers, the mystics, the occultists and saints have said about God, but you must keep one thing in mind: Only he who has eaten of the Sacred bread of life can speak about God. The real philosophy of life will appear only when men begin to eat consciously of the Only Sacred bread. The Sacred bread bears the Word in itself. He who does not eat of this bread can not have the Word manifested in him. Eating, as an external process of the Word, and comprehension as an inner process, go parallel. If man does not eat correctly and if he does not comprehend things correctly, the Word can not operate within him. Then come the evil consequences in life. All sicknesses, misfortunes and contradictions are due to the fact that man has not eaten well and has not comprehended things well. It is not a question whether man should eat according to the rules of modern science, or use the elements which it recommends. I am not speaking about bread, as a material object composed of several elements. I am speaking about bread as a spiritual manifestation of life. The Sacred bread, known by all people, contains mainly a spiritual element, which all the rest of the chemical elements are supplemental forces of, in order that the Word, the bearer of life, might become manifested. Everything contemporary science maintains is true, but that is only the external side of the question. The bread contains a great idea without which the human life can not be manifested. If you want to manifest this life on earth, do not believe in that bread which is fresh today, and stale tomorrow, neither the bread which moulds, but rather in the living bread, which all men eat. He that eats the living bread, feels an inner calmness, an influx of energy and power and is grateful to nature for having given him the possibility to live. This is what the first article of the new Creed contains.

The Creed of humanity, however, contains four main articles, which are as follows: I believe in the Only Sacred bread which all men eat. I believe in the Only Sacred water which all men drink. I believe in the Only sacred air which all men breathe. I believe in the Only Sacred light which all men receive.

These are the four articles of the new creed. Every other creed proceeds forth from this one. Why? Because this creed contains the four necessary elements of life. All men eat the Sacred bread. All men drink the Sacred water. All men breathe the Sacred air. All men live in the Saered light and receive it. No matter what world you may go into - heaven or hell - everybody needs these four elements. Both believers and unbelievers are benefited by the four sacred elements. There is a difference, however, in the way the inhabitants of heaven use these elements from the way the inhabitants of hell use them: the former profess them and put them to an inner as well as an outer use, while the latter profess and use them only externally. As far as their inward application is concerned, they keep quiet about that. From this point of view, hereticism does not exist. Therefore, if you call any one a heretic, it would imply that that man does not eat of the Sacred bread, drink of the Sacred water, breathe the Sacred air or receive the Sacred light. In such a case, that man is doomed to death. He who lives, he who does not die, is not a heretic, for he lives by the four sacred elements - bearers of life and immortality.

Who gave the idea of these elements to humanity? Christ brought this idea. He preached about it among all people. When? Not only two thousand years ago, but since unremembered ages, for Christ has always existed and worked for humanity in many different ways. The sun has always shone and is shining, but at times we see it, while at other times, we do not see it. That is, however, a temporary condition, a changed environment depending either on the position of the earth, or upon ourselves. The sun is always shining for those whose consciousness is always awake. The present conditions of life divert men from the right path, 3ince they prevent them from comprehending the development of life in its entirety. People today, like small children, worry and are disturbed by things which they must not even raise a question about. What do children worry about? The child, generally, is impatient. As soon as he ask his mother for bread and hears that the bread is not ready yet, he begins to cry. His mother speaks to him and tries to convince him that in one hour, or in half an hour the bread will be ready, but he does not want to listen to her and continues to cry. As soon as the mother takes the bread out of the oven and breaks it up, the child smiles, stops crying and starts to eat.

Thus, the essential thing for life is food. Why? Because the Word comes through the food. As soon as the Word comes, we enter the world which God has created. Only in this way can we understand the words of Christ: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." You have all read 'the Blessings' and will read them many more times, but they will remain mere sentences for you up to the time when an inner comprehension will illumine you. No matter how you may explain a thing to a man, he will not understand it until he has experienced it. How can you explain sweetness, or bitterness to anyone, if he has not tasted them? How can you explain to people the verse "The pure in heart shall see God," if they have not experienced this state? No matter how you may explain it, they can not understand this verse, if they have not seen God. After they have seen Him, they will understand the meaning of this verse. The man who would speak about this verse must have passed through the same experience. When a painter lives in nature and paints its beautiful spots, his pictures bear a sort of character which they would not have, if the artist should paint the same pictures away from nature, out of his memory, or imagination. These are two entirely different things.

Often people want to form an idea of what a good man is. What idea can they have about the good man? Three things distinguish man from the other living beings, according to me. They are: the head, the hands and the feet. These are the external features of the visible man. All other features and organs of man are secondary. Therefore, the head is the essential thing in man. The important part of the head is the face with all its organs. The face is linked with the brain and the better the brain is cultivated, the more beautiful and expressive is the face. The feet of man are the expression of the good. Thus, the good, virtue, has created the feet. When the serpent told the first lie, it crippled its body by losing its feet. In this respect, the feet are the expression and the symbol of the good. If men lose their goodness, they cripple themselves and become invalids. Such is the great law of life. Therefore, when a man loses or neglects some virtue, at the same time he loses or cripples that organ which is in service of that special virtue. When man enters the region of sin, he gradually becomes atrophied: his feet and hands become atrophied until nothing is left of them. If you put a log of wood in the fire, at first it starts to burn and it burns until it disappears and turns only into smoke and ashes. Sin is an analogous process. It is fire, but not fire which purifies, but rather fire which burns everything up. Sin, evil in the world in a destructive force, while the good is creative and constructive. The good is the first fruit of life. With that good, i.e. with our feet, we walk over the face of the earth. By and through the good we receive those energies which are necessary for the sustenance of the bodily life. Who has not experienced a great joy when after a long sea voyage, he has touched ground again. The child experiences a great joy, also, when he stands and walks on his feet for the first time. Both the adult and the child rejoice for having a solid base under their feet.

Thus, the feet are the expression of the good. To stand on your feet is to step on solid ground, on the real creed, on a deep, solid understanding and inner self-assurance. To stand on your feet is to be out of all deceit, unbelief, cowardice and evil. He who lives in the Divine Love walks on the earth and feels that it is sacred ground. Which is the sacred ground? It is that ground upon which wheat is born. It is out of that ground that the wheat draws all its necessary elements which the ground has been storing up during the course of ages.

Contemporary people follow two contrary courses of life, in consequence of which, they obtain two different results. The one way lies in much speaking and little working, while the other - in more work and less speaking. The first way is of no profit. For instance, people say to someone: you must study; you must understand; you must be prudent. The results of this method are similar to those of the four sons, heirs of their father. After receiving their inheritance of fields, vineyards and gardens, they had begun to eat and drink and to sit all day long saying: the fields must be plowed, the vineyards must be digged, the gardens must be watered, but they themselves did not do anything, leaving all the work to their servants to do. But after a time, they became very poor and naked and began to ask one another: What is the reason that we lost everything? Why did not our father tell us the secret how to work and what to do? I say: one must not only say what must be done, but rather work. It is the same thing as to sit in a chair and to repeat to yourself: I must be good! - In this way you will become the last pauper, but you will not become good. You will become good when you give the good that is within you, a chance to manifest itself. The good is in man, it can not be manifested externally. The power, which makes the grain of wheat sprout up, is within it, it can not come from outside. Outside of it lie the possibilities and conditions for its growth, while the power for its growth is hidden within. Therefore, when you do not have success in life, you must know that you live in the first way - that of merely speaking about the things which must be done. If you want to reap success, start to live in the second way, which is the way of work. As soon as you say that something must be done, begin immediately to work for its realization.

Now as I speak about desirable and undesirable things, I find that a number of contradictions appear within them too. For instance, someone say: I would like to attain something for which I am making great efforts. - There is no need of making efforts. When you go to work, or study, efforts are not necessary. Only the sick and the lame man make efforts. The healthy man does not make efforts. To study, to work, to be good are natural states for all people. Efforts must be made only when a man is overcoming some defect or infirmity. In all other cases of life, effort must be excluded. Do not make efforts, but rather say: I live, I love. Do not allow any thought with a double meaning to stay in your mind. For instance, you say: I must be good. - That means, that you have not been good till now and from now on you will become good. This thought has a double meaning and can cause you to stumble. Again you say: If I can not realize my desires in this life, I will leave them all for another life to attain what I want to. - Do not divide life. The present and the future life are one and the same life. Life can not be divided. Therefore, do not put things off for another life. How do you know what conditions you will have in the future? If you can not benefit by the present conditions which you are given, how can you use the future conditions to your benefit? If you can not learn the lesson which your teacher has given you today, how will you learn tomorrow’s lesson? Putting things off for the future life, is one of the dangerous sides of the theory of reincarnation. I am not against this theory, but I say: every life has a definite program which must be fulfilled. Everyone must benefit by and solve the problems of his present life and not think about the future. Many are hindered by the thought that they are old and can not do anything more. How old are you? Those who think they are old, are barely 4O-45 years of age.

I ask you: By what means do you determine youth and age? If by the words "an old man" you mean an invalid, that is another question. But if by 'old' you mean a man of experience and sound reason, you are on the right path, Since you have become wiser through age, you need not be hindered by it, but rather continue to march on. But if you are invalids, you must know the reason why you have come to such a state. If you say that God has created you invalids, you are not speaking the truth. It is dangerous for man to think he is an invalid, for he would expect others to take care of him in that case. It is the same thing as when a father, expects his children to grow up and take care of him. In case he has no children, he would expect some rich uncle to make him heir of his riches. Yes, the rich uncle may come, but he also may not come. Then that man would expect his fortune from some lottery ticket. But the chances there, are also small - he may buy lottery tickets all his life and still gain nothing by them.

Here is how the question stands: if there is need of a lottery ticket, you already have one - you have brought it with your coming to the earth. Which is this ticket? - Life. This lottery ticket is full of possibilities for the attainment of your ideals. What more do you need? This lottery ticket contains a number of rules and laws which you must observe. If you eat the living bread on time, your lottery ticket will be always full. The healthy man observes the rules and laws of the lottery ticket, while the sick man can not do that. Whom do you love more: the sic or the healthy man? Who is sick and who is healthy? There are healthy people who, in reality, are sic. There are sick people who, in reality, are healthy. At times you can love the sick people. The fact that you love them shows that they are healthy ‘sick’ people. In this sense, the healthy man can always be loved, while the sick man can not be always loved. The healthy man is contented, but when? Only after he has eaten well. He is not contented before he has eaten bread. He is contented with the knowledge he has, but not with his ignorance. However, knowledge springs, from the Word. Only the healthy man has knowledge and can know something positively. A healthy man, in the full sense of the word, is the man who believes and whose faith is acquired by experience in the three worlds: the world of the human body, the world of the soul and the world of the spirit. The human body represents the external - the physical world - the world of external nature. That of the soul represents the invisible, the spiritual world, while the world of the spirit represents the Divine world.

Now I shall not explain to you what these worlds represent. You yourselves must think and form some opinion about them. Some day when you visit these worlds, yea will learn many things. And whatever you learn, that will remain with you. That which one can see there, is very difficult to describe. Haw, for instance, can you describe the angelic world? Some people ask if there is day and night in the other world, as here on earth. - In the other world there is no night as here on earth. It is only day there. On earth, however, there is day and night, because it receives its light from the sun. The day and the night show that people on the earth live outside of the reality of life, under peculiar conditions. When the consciousness of man is darkened, in consequence of which certain changes in his condition take place, it is night for him; when his consciousness becomes clear and his ideas corrected, day comes in him. You say: we wonder what our life in the other world will be. If your consciousness does not darken when you are in that world, it will be day for you. Man's consciousness can be darkened by many causes. Sometimes the most insignificant cause can darken your consciousness. For instance, you have a good disposition, but your friend comes and pricks you with a needle. You lose immediately your good disposition and begin to think and worry over the pain your friend has caused, you. If one string of the violin of some famous violinist breaks, he loses a quarter of his certainty; if the second string breaks, he loses two quarters of his certainty; if the third string breaks, three quarters of his surety are lost. However, as soon as one string is left, he stops playing the violin. No violinist can play with a single string on his instrument. What sort of violinist is that who can play on a single string?

Thence, I draw the following comparison: what sort of man is he whose spirit, soul and body do not function? That is a violinist with a single string on the violin. What kind of a man is he whose mind does not think, whose heart does not feel and whose will is not active? The real man is he who believes in the Divine Spirit out of Whom he has proceeded forth and who works in accord with Him. He should also believe in his soul, which feels at all times and lastly, he should, believe in his body by means of which he is in contact in mind, heart and will with his neighbour. The mind, the heart and the will are the manifestations of the body. Man cannot believe in that which he does not see. He should believe in that which he sees outside of himself, and that which he feels within. When he believes in everything outside and inside himself, man will come to a number of external and inner methods for work. You can not attain anything without this creed. The whole humanity will come to the new creed through the Sacred bread which they eat. The Sacred bread will lead man to the Word, while the Word will reveal the real life to him. It says in the Scriptures: "All things were made by the Word." As soon as man attain life, along with the Word they will attain the Sacred water, the Sacred air and the Sacred light.

Now I shall tell you a legend about the origin of the human tears. Tears appeared for the first time in the world after Adam and Eve were chased out of Paradise. Up to that time Adam had not known what tears are. The first woman who has wept is Eve. Eve was a beautiful woman. After leaving Paradise, she realized her fault and deeply repented. Then God gave her a book saying: "The first commandment I gave you was not to ear of the forbidden tree - the tree of knowing, good and evil, but you ate and violated my law. Now I give you this book that you may read and study it. As soon as you stop reading it, you must close it and hide it away carefully. If you leave it open, a greater misfortune than the former one will befall you. You wanted to attain knowledge, did you not? Therefore, take this sacred book. Read and study it!" After taking the book from God, both of them had the idea that they possessed a book upon which their salvation depended. One day after reading it, Eve distracted by something, forgot it open. At that moment the devil arrived and after covering the book with a black sheet of paper, he went away. Upon returning to her book, Eve was terribly surprised when she could not read its pages any longer - a black sheet prevented her from reading the book. Then she thought to herself: "This time again we did not fulfill the command of God." She realized and repented for her fault and started to cry and to pray. A long time she wept until the black sheet melted away before her eyes, the book opened itself and she started to read it freely again. Thus came the first tears into the world.

So I say: man must weep and pray a long time over the Sacred book before the black sheet can melt away and the book open and become readable again. As soon as the book opens up, one must begin to read it, by all means! It is the Sacred book of life. You ask: why must man weep? - It is dark before his eyes. He must weep until the darkness is dispersed and everything shines clear before him, until the Sacred book of life opens before him and he starts to read it. Never leave your Sacred book of life open! If you do that, the devil will come immediately, place a black sheet over it and go away. As soon as you have read some part of that book, close it up immediately. When you need to, open it again. Do not give it to anyone else to open it. Everyone must open and close this Sacred book himself. The book may be open while you are reading it, but as soon as you stop reading, close it up and then go away. Everyone must open his own book with a sense of deep reverence and respect, He will open his book, read something in it, reflect upon it then close it carefully and go to work. After he returns from work, he will open his book again to read and reflect, then he should close it and rest. The reading of the Sacred book represents the great bond which the soul must continually sustain. What bond must the soul sustain? An inner bond, an inner communion, With whom? - If I say with God, this word will not be clear to many. What God is for the human soul can be comprehended only when you have a friend whom you love much. When you see you friend, your whole being is transformed - you are deeply glad to see him. Everything which makes things meaningful, is due to the presence of God. Wherever God is present, there life appears; wherever God is absent, death is present there. Where God is present, there light appears; where light dwells there bread is born, water springs forth abundantly and the air encompasses all things, Where God is absent everything gradually diminishes and disappears.

Therefore, the sufferings in the world show the absence of the Divine Love in people. When the Divine Love is in men then joy and gladness are found there. Thus, when you grieve, love is absent. This does not mean that love does not love you, but rather that there is some obstacle between it and you, some black sheet which prevents its manifestation. What must we do in order that love may come? You must shed tears a long time over the black sheet until it melts away. Therefore, water must come to the aid of man to quicken the arrival of love. Water satiates the thirst of man and saves him from death. Therefore, the bread is the bearer of the good; the water bring life; the air brings power while the light gives knowledge. These are four cardinal states which must be known by everyone. If man is not good, if he has not life, power and knowledge, these four elements are absent in him. Power flows into mail through the Sacred air which he breathes. The Hindus who know this from their initiates, have created a whole science about breathing with all its different methods and rules, in order to restore the strength of the human organism. When someone is in a negative mood, or sick or finds no sense in life, let him drink water. Everyone has experienced the effect of water at such times. When a traveller is passing across a mountain and begins to feel his legs giving way under him and his strength failing fast, he stops at a spring, drinks some water and feels his strength restored.

This is why I say: believe in the Sacred bread, in the Sacred water, in the Sacred air and in the Sacred light through which the Word is manifested. When you believe in the Sacred bread, you will pray God to receive it inwardly and along with it to receive the Word of God. You can see how Christ regards the bread as the symbol of the Word, that after he broke it and fed with it several thousand men, he gave orders that all the crumbs should be gathered in a basket and not be scattered all around. As soon as you comprehend the meaning and significance of the bread, as the symbol of the Word, you will be in a position to form among yourselves sacred relations and have a sacred attitude toward one another. I wish you to form such sacred relations among yourselves and learn to understand and appreciate them. Let these relations and attitude which you have among yourselves, include all living beings for the sake of the love you have for God. You may see a snail insect creeping, stop a while beside it, consider its life and draw some lesson from it for your own life. You see a fly or a bee - stop before it and think about the One Who has created them and Whom you love. You see a worm - do not mock at its effort to creep, but try to penetrate into the difficulties of its life. The worm is the symbol of humility. If the worm did not work, the Sacred bread would not some forth. That small worm, despised by many, does a great work. What a ploughman it is! It has done a thousand good things whereby you and millions like you profit!

The New Teaching needs men of a new outlook on life. Today the young people disregard the old men who, in their turn, disregard the young people. The young man says about the old man: This man has grown old, he is of no more use to anybody. The old man, in turn, says about the young man: This youth is still green, he is not a ripe fruit. Who can wait for him to become ripe? If the youth thinks about the aged in this way, he is a sick man and if the aged thinks in this way about the youth, he is already on his dying bed. He will die tomorrow, men will bury him and write on his grave: Here lies such and such a philosopher, a learned man! If the old and young people continue to think in this way, it will follow according to their views, that Christ is in the grave up to this day. In reality, Christ did not spend even three days in the grave. On the third day He rose. People today still keep their Christ in the grave. It is time for them to roll off the stone from His tomb so that He might resurrect for them! And after all that, men expect Christ to come a second time to the earth! If Christ does not rise within you, He will not come outside of you by any means! When Mary went to the tomb of Christ and did not find Him there, she started to weep. They asked her: "Woman, why weepest thou?" And she answered: "Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him!" And after saying that, she turned her head and saw Jesus standing there and knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her: "Mary!" And she turned and said to Him: "Master!"

I say: how many times in the past you have met Christ! But in spite of that, you continue to ask: Did you not see who took His body away? Now I am speaking to you, in order that you should not be deceived by external things, but rather hold to your inner illumination such as Mary experienced. When that illumination dawned in her, she knew Christ. External things can never be understood without that inner illumination of the consciousness. There is an example of this idea in the Bible. When Christ asked some of his disciples whom men thought Him to be, they answered Him that some say He is one of the old prophets and some - Elias. However, Peter answered: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Christ answered him: "Flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father Who lives in heaven." This is why man must study that truth which God reveals to him. If some man comes who calls himself Christ, must you believe in him immediately? In order to test him whether he is really Christ, lead him to a sick man and ask him to put his hand over the head of the sick person. If after the laying of his hands over the sick person the latter does not regain his health, what kind of a Christ is that man? Must man balieve in such a man who does not give them any knowledge or throw any light in their minds? It says in the Scripture: "As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon and bread." And Jesus said to them: "Bring of the fish which ye have now caught!" This is what it means to be with Christ, or to have Christ come into your home. When Christ comes to your home, you will have everything in abundance. If you are deprived of certain things, if you are not fully satisfied, Christ is not among you. Those who want to follow the way of Christ must have such an idea of Him.

How many ask when the end of the world will be. - The end of the world is a philosophic question. - When will Christ come? - This is also a philosophic question. When they asked Christ about the end of the world, He answered them: "My Father only knows this. It is not given to you to know the times and the seasons which my Father hath appointed." So I say: there is a knowledge which is not necessary now to people. It is unnecessary as a bride's dress is to a five years old girl. All the flowers, wreaths and jewels which the bride wears are not necessary to the little girl. Therefore, I say to you: do not deck the child's clothes given to you by God with any flowers and jewels! Do not exchange your child's dress for that of the bride! I have often seen small girls who wear flowers on their heads like young maidens. Some years ago I had a chance to test a little girl and to see how prudent she was. I held forth a lovely rose to her which she refused to take under the pretense that she is not a maiden - she has not come to the state to deck her hair with flowers. This was the external side of the refusal, but inwardly she meant that she did not wear flowers picked from their root. Since she could not give them life, she would not pick them, or deck her hair with them. Let the one who had picked the rose bear the consequences of his crime - she meant to say. I had received the rose that day and wondered to whom I could give it. As you see, it served as an object lesson to all.

When you say a bitter word to anyone, is not that equal to the giving of a picked rose to him? Do not pick the flowers and do not give them to, any person! Keep the following rule: approach all people with a deep consciousness that originally God created then good. If you find that some people are not good, that shows that they have committed a faulty sometime in their life, on account of which they have lost their goodness. You must think in this way both of yourselves and of others. If you have some defect it is due to certain other causes. It depends on you to remove that defect. However, you must constantly keep in your mind the thought that God has deposited the good in you as a foundation for your life. He has sent you to the earth as to a school where you can study. Therefore, you must study well. The only thing which makes God happy is when you study well. I am also happy when I see you study with love and readiness. When I sea a man facing temptation, I say: It is dangerous for a man to go astray from the path assigned to him.

I shall use an example from the Old Testament about the bad consequence of a diversion from the right way. Once God sent one of the young prophets to the king of Israel - Jeroboam to deliver His Word to him. He said to the prophet: "Do not eat bread, do not drink water nor return by the same way you went." An old prophet reached him on the way and told him: "Come with me to my house to eat bread." - I can not go back with you, neither can I eat bread and drink water, nor return by the same way I came. This is what the word of God tells me to do. - I am also a prophet like you and an angel spoke to me the Word of God saying: "Take him back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water." The old prophet thus told a lie. The young prophet returned and went to his house to eat bread and to drink water. While sitting at the table the old prophet told him: "Since you did not obey the voice of God and did not keep His commandment, your body shall not lie in the tomb of your fathers." The young man continued his way, but a lion met him and tore his body into pieces. The old prophet found his body on the road, and took it to the town to lament and bury it.

I ask you: why was it necessary for the old prophet to deceive the young prophet and put him in such a temptation so that a lion had to devour him? And why should he lament him afterward? The right thins was for the old prophet to advise the young one not to go astray from his road. There is an inner cause for which the old prophet had to put the young prophet to a test - the stability of the latter was tested. By that test it was seen that the young prophet had not a firm and solid character.

Often people understand things as the young prophet, in consequence of which they make mistakes which cost them their life. The young prophet should have said to the old prophet: I shall continue along the way I have taken and not stop or go right or left. The same thing applies to you: if you stop anywhere, you will be hindered in your development. For instance, you rely on something, you follow a certain way, but someone comes and say to you: The way you are going is not right. - Must you believe that person? You must answer: Since I eat the Sacred bread, I am in the right way and I have absolutely no doubt in that. Therefore, man can not walk in the way of Truth, if he does not eat the Sacred bread, drink the Sacred water, breathe the Sacred air and receive the Sacred light. And when Christ says: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life," He means exactly these four elements - to eat the Sacred bread without the least doubt, whether you are in the Way or not. As you receive everyday the Sacred bread, i.e. the body of Christ, you must know that you are in the right way. As you drink the Sacred water, breathe the Sacred air and receive the Sacred light of the rising sun, you must be grateful at all moments, that you are in the right way. This is the first state man experiences in the physical world. The second state is higher - it penetrates all the worlds.

Now you should meditate on these four elements, as symbols, and try to see what in life each one of them corresponds to. After that you will enter the other reality of life which will give you that which you seek. You want to be happy, healthy, rich etc. However, it is not necessary for man to obtain everything he desires. Why? Because all things are not essential. In this sense some things are desirable and essential which have a relation to the present moment. Other things are desirable, yet unessential and can be put off for a later time. I wish you to obtain that which is essential for you. For instance, love and truth are essential for you. Whatever might be said about love, it is unique. Love brings life; wisdom brings knowledge and light, while truth brings freedom. You say: We want to know the truth. - The truth can not be spoken on the earth. Here we can display only the facts of life, but not the reality itself, i.e. the truth itself. For instance, I say: reality has two sides - light and dark, sweet and bitter. These are facts about reality, but they do not represent reality itself. You say to someone: You are not a wise man. - This is only a fact, but not reality. The truth can be spoken only to the slave when you release him from his chains; the truth can be spoken only to the hungry man when you feed him; the truth can be spoken to the thirsty man when you satiate his thirst; - the man suffocating - when you take him out into the pure open air; - to the lost in a dark night when you illumine his way. Thus, the truth shows you the way you must go; it liberates you from the limiting conditions of life. All people expect to be welcomed with music, songs and wreaths when they go into the other world. One thing is true - that you will all go to the other world, but how they will meet you there is quite a different question. How will you appear before the face of your Father? What account of your life will you give Him?

You say: It means that suffering is expecting us in the other world. Few have experienced real suffering and real joy. Imagine a young man full of life and energy condemned to death by beheading. They take hold of him, bind his hands and feet, put him in prison where he knows that the next day his life will be taken. What is the state of that young man who knows that his head will be taken off the next day? What greater suffering than this can there be? Such is the state of a sinner who realizes his sins, and must appear before the Lord. Imagine now just the opposite of this condition. This young man has prayed and wept a long tine, but no one has given attention to him and he is beheaded. But the Saviour of the world comes Who love the young men, takes his head from the ground, puts it in its place and says: - Be free now and sin no more! Follow the law of Love! What will that man experience? - Unspeakable joy. When someone asks what suffering is, I say: real suffering lies in this - to see how your head falls off your neck by the knife of your brother, in spite of the fact that you desire with all your, might to live and to enjoy this world of God. What is joy? Real joy is experienced when you see your head put back in its place. What is suffering? - Deprivation of Love i.e. taking your head away. What is joy? - The coming of Love, i.e. putting your head back in its place. This is the way to understand life in all its manifestations. All other ideas have not the power to throw the new light on life. Man’s head must stay in its piece! The upright man is distinguished by the fact that no power in the world is capable of taking his head off his shoulders. No arms can take his head off, either. When man's head can fall off his shoulders, it is a sign that he is exposed to some inner danger.

The blessings we read in the chapter of Matthew are methods toward the realisation of an inner bond with God - with Love. As soon as you achieve this bond, an angel of the Lord will knock on our hearts and take you to the spiritual end Divine world where they will welcome you with wreathe, music and songs. If you are not ready and refuse to go with him, he will cut off your head with his sword. I describe to you this state not because it will be your fate, but in order that you might know what darkness and suffering mean. Every man is not condemned to be beheaded, but everyone must sympathize with the one who will pass through that suffering and feel his condition. You speak with such a man, but you know that after one day he will lose his contents — his head will go. You look at his muscles, hands and feet, but the man is not there. Where is the real man? Some will say that the man is in the soul, others - in the spirit etc.

Now we are expecting the elevation of the human soul, the liberation of the human spirit and the resurrection of the human body. Thus, the physical man must resurrect! In the physical world the resurrection represents the new life of man; in the spiritual world the resurrection implies the coming of love on the earth; while in the Divine world, it means the descent of the spirit to the earth. Therefore, man must resurrect simultaneously in the three worlds: in body, soul and spirit. This is the true resurrection. When a man dies and is born again - that is a resurrection only in the physical world called reincarnation. The resurrection in the spiritual world is the entrance of man into a world without contradictions. The resurrection in the Divine world implies the attainment of the Eternal life.

People today live in a world in which they eat mouldy bread from morning till night; drink polluted water from morning till night; breathe impure air from morning till night; walk in dim light in which they constantly stumble. These are the inner states of man. It is not enough only to say that God is good and to sit and wait for this goodness to become manifested. This is an old philosophy which you must put aside. The question is about the new life which requires faith in the Sacred bread, as a foundation of life out of which proceeds the Word. Believe that originally God has deposited many talents and abilities in man which he must develop. How? - By working in the right way and by loving disinterestedly. Then he will appear before the face of God as before a good Father and show Him all the talents he has developed. He who has worked on the earth will appear before his Father as a good son; ho who has not worked will appear as the prodigal son about whom Christ spoke in one of His parables. The prodigal son returned to his father penetant and humble, for which reason his father killed the fatted calf and gave a feast in his honor. He said to his good son: "Son, you must not be angry. Your brother was dead and is now come to life. All that I have is yours. You do not understand yet the deep meaning of life, that is why you are angry. Rejoice that your brother has come!"

As I observe the relations of people, they are very much like those of the two brother, when they see that a new person enters a society where he is met with a certain respect, they all attack him saying: This man has just come and so much honor is accorded to him, while we have worked for 15-20 years and no one pays any attention to us. I say: the prodigal son did not return to his father for any honors, or feasts. He said to his father: "I am not worthy of your love. Will you, kindly, take me in your home as a servant?" In order that man may be given a banquet like the one the father gave to his son, he must have a broad mind, a big heart, a spacious soul, a great spirit and broad views. This concerns all who have an awaken consciousness who want to love, to study and to prepare themselves for the coming of the Kingdom of God within them. It is time for all people to take off their prisoners robes and to free their feet chains. It is terrible to listen to the noise of men's feet in chains! How awful is the noise of the iron chains! All men today are in chains. I meet a certain man in such a state and free him from his chains. Hs begins to walk freely, but when I meet him on the morrow, he is in chains again. I cure some sick person, but after he is cured, he comes to me sick again - again in chains! Someone comes to ask me what food to eat and how many times a day to eat, but after I tell him everything, he does not apply my advice, continuing to eat as he is used to. What can one tell such a man? Another man asks me whether to eat potatoes and tomatoes. I say: It is not an easy thing for one to eat potatoes, since they have absorbed certain harmful elements by staying a long time in the ground. The wheat, also, by being kept a long time in the barn acquires certain harmful elements for the human organism. Man must know how to rid himself of the harmful elements the different foods contain. When you eat grapes you must wash carefully every grain you put in your mouth, as that it should be free of any microbs or dirt. People today eat quickly and o not give enough attention to the purity of the fruit they eat. It is good that they have no fear of infection, but fast, careless eating has bad consequences for the organism. Man must not eat fast. When he takes a bunch of grapes, let him look it over carefully, wash it well and start eating it grain by grain, counting the number of grains the bunch of grapes contains. In fact, all this is in regard to the external side of eating, but when one learns to eat correctly, he will gradually begin to comprehend its inner meaning.

Now as you read the Word of God, you come to the conclusion that man must live rightly in order to please God. How can we please God? - By loving one another. How can we love one another? What is the rule, according to you about the way to love a person? To love a man means never to trespass his Sacred enclosure. How should this be understood? - Never to eat the bread which he eats; never to drink the water, he drinks; never to desire the house for yourself in which he lives; never to regard with envy his clothes, his hat, or the shoes he wears; never to cross the path he walks upon; never to take the place in which he sits. This is what love means. Someone comes and tells me that when he loves a person he wishes to embrace him a little to press him against his bosom. There is no greater misfortune, according to me, than to embrace and press a man against your bosom. Why? This is binding. You can bind only a sick person. The doctor comes, examines the sick person, binds him and goes away. They bind the sick in hospitals, also but that is not love. To love your neighbour is to give him within yourself all the rights which you want to have yourself. Who are our neighbours? They are those rational souls by whom we are daily put to a teat. Our neighbours are the angels who manifest themselves on earth through the people. You meet a poor, feeble man trough whom they teach you a lesson; an angel is manifested trough him who wants to test you and see how you will act. Christ says: "That which you did to the poor, the sick, the suffering and the prisoners, you did it into me. I was in them." Therefore, if you do no render some service to the sick, the poor and the suffering, you have not rendered a service to Christ. This is the external side of the test. After you have passed it, you will come to the inner side of the test which is more difficult. After you pass that one also, you will meet the One Who loves you and Whom you love. Today people live on earth not knowing whom they love and who loves them. We see who is our neighbour in the parable of "the Good Samaritan."

Now as I tell you to work upon yourselves, I want to turn your attention to the inner danger of self-criticism. Self-criticism is a temporary method of no profit for you. I do not recommend this method. If you, or some other person commit a fault, do not hurry to pass your judgment about it, but make an inner interpretation - learn something from it. You hear that a wolf has devoured the sheep of your neighbor. Do not hurry to say for what reason wolf has done that crime, but draw a lesson from that for yourself. You say that the wolf has not done well. It is true that the wolf has committed a crime, but you, who criticise him, are committing the same crime you kill the lambs and eat them. I ask you: what difference is there in the crime the wolf commits from that of man? You will answer that it is allowed to people to kill sheep, but it is not allowed for the wolves to devour them.

Another case: you criticise a person that he has made a mistake, but as soon as you go home, you make the same mistake. What will you say about this? So, it is easy to see the mistakes of another, but difficult to see your own. Therefore, judgment and criticism do not set things right, nor help people. You go to the house of some man and want him to receive you in. He gives you a piece of bread and excuses himself that he can not receive you in, because he has no bed, no covers, no fire. You do not believe him and are read to label him as insincere, since he does not want to receive you into his home. I ask you: what can that man do? He is also poor and has not a cent in his pocket. This condition is similar to that, of a poor man spoken of, in the story "King and beggar." In a certain kingdom, in ancient times, the king had fallen seriously ill, almost at the point of death. After all the doctors had in vain tried to help him, a simple man had arrived at the palace, saying that the king could be healed, if he could put on the shirt of a happy man. Men had gone on had to all the corners of the kingdom searching for a happy man. Finally, they had found an utterly poverty - stricken person without shelter, without clotes and shoes, almost always hungry, but happy and contented with his lot, continually singing and thanking God for the life He had given him. The messengers of the king, had gone to ask him for his shirt, but had received the calm answer: - I have no shirt!

Men often speak about move and in the Scripture we read about it, but everyone must apply it in life according to his deep understanding of it. Man, moreover, must not impose his own conception about it, on other people. In regard to love, I have come to the following rule: Apply love in your life according to your deep inner comprehension of it, disregarding what other men think about this question, without, imposing your own idea on others. Love is a great, sacred law through which God is manifested- Therefore, apply love in your life in the way God is manifesting it towards you. Do not be influenced by other men's comprehension of it, neither impose your own conception upon others. However, do not disregard the manifestations of others, but learn by them. In this respect you must be models one for another. If you are models for one another, everyone will be free in his manifestations. This is the way the artists, musicians and poets act. When a musician listens to the performance of another musician, he observe carefully how the latter moves the bow, how he executes and interprets a piece and learns from him. When an artist observes some greater artist than himself, he observes carefully how the latter moves his paint-brush, how he applies the different paints on the canvas, and learns from all that, drinking in the beautiful. All men must observe and receive the beautiful in life. If you are not a great artist, or musician, no one will receive anything from you Thus, I am not for the imitation, but for the reception of the beautiful. Let people receive that which is beautiful in you; but you must receive also that which is beautiful in them. I take a delight in all that is beautiful and lovely. I rejoice at every pretty leaf, at every pretty flower, at every living creature, child and man. I see in all things this manifestation of the rational/(Inteligent, Sentient) Power and learn something from all things.

I say: we must all rejoice at that which God has created. Only in this way can we understand the inner meaning of things. Therefore, all that you have read and understood of the Word of God, must be received and applied in life, because it corresponds to your mind, to your heart, to your will, to your soul and to your spirit. Only thus can you attain the Truth which shall make you free.

Now I wish the blessing of God to come upon you, as God wills! I wish all the promises God has given you to be fulfilled!. And let those promises serve for the elevation of your souls!

There is a dark side in the human life, which has been under, solution for thousands of years and it still remains unsolved to this very day. This dark side refers to the trials in life. All men ask: Why are there trials in life? Can we not do without them? Which people are tried? Only the strong, not the weak, the enlightened, not the ignorant. On the whole, the weak and ignorant people have the least trials. Therefore, only those who do not understand the laws and order of nature, can ask the question why there exist trials in life. This shows, that these people have a peculiar conception of life. They want to be happy, not knowing wherein happiness lies. It is the same if you seek the truth without knowing what truth is. The truth makes man free. He who obtains the truth becomes free. He who does not understand the truth, constantly meets with contradictions in his life. To establish a fact is not the truth. Why? Because after you have established the fact, you still meet with contradictions in life and are not free.

People today are dissatisfied with the order which exists in nature. I say: this question can be solved very easily. How? Let all who are dissatisfied with the present world, as well as with the order of nature, give their own better and more rational plan. Since thousands of years the invisible world has given freedom to all who are discontented with the laws and order in the world to give their own project. If that project proves better, they will apply it on the earth, in order that all men might benefit by it. He who wants-to correct Nature must, by all means, be wiser than her. An ignoramus can not correct a famous violinist. He who wants to correct some famous violinist, must, by all means, know how to play better than him. In this respect, Christ was one of the wisest and most enlightened parsons. He was initiated into a science still closed for people today. And in that state as a son of God, Christ passed through great trials. What need did He have of fasting 40 days in the wilderness? Christ made an experiment to see how many days a man can live without food. During those 40 days He lived only on the Sacred bread - the Word of God. When the devil tempted him, he said to Him: "If you are the Son God tell this stone to become bread!" Christ answered him: "It is written that man shall not live by broad alone, but by every Word of God." People are afraid when an ill person does not eat, or a healthy man eats little. They begin to advise him to eat more and to use more fat foods. They recommend to him roasted or boiled chicken, or chicken soup with a larger amount of butter. Today people deceive themselves by thinking that fat food or meat will contribute much to their general well-being. However, that is not true, for the foreign elements to your body always remain foreign to it. The life of the other living beings belongs to them and not to man. Man has no right to dispose of the life of the other living beings. - But How and what shall we eat then? By the word ‘food’ in a broad sense, I understand the Divine. In this respect, only the Divine can serve as food for man. Outside of It, all other things are foreign properties which man has no right to dispose of. Thus, he who uses as food something which is not Divine, stores in his organism certain poisons. -The foreign elements entering an organism leave their poison. All sufferings and contradictions in life are due to these elements in the human organism. The problem of man is to rid his organism of all foreign elements. Only the Divine must regain in his organism. As soon as that which is foreign to man goes out of him and only the Divine remains, his face brightens up and his will assumes its normal condition. So long as man is disturbed, he has foreign elements in his heart. So long as he thinks one thing today and another tomorrow, he has foreign elements in his mind. It is not important to know who has deposited these elements in him; the important question is for him to rid and clean himself of them. May be his grandmother, or his grandfather have injected him with these elements - that is not important, however. He should clean and free himself of them, that is his work.

I say: you need a positive science which can introduce you to the essence of life, not to the illusory and transitory things in life. The transitory things always bring suffering and unhappiness to people. Suffering is caused by the fact that these things are easily lost. Therefore, one can not rely on them. For instance, you expect to receive an inheritance, but you are on the wrong path. If you expect a saint to pray for you - you are wrong. If you expect other people to plough your field, but you only to gather in the wheat, you are on the wrong path. If you want to enter the right way, you should start to work and rely on yourself. For this reason, you must regard life as a whole. Man must find his place in this whole and accomplish his work within it without hindering the other organs of life in the performance of their work. The leaf of a tree must not meddle with the work of the other leaves. Every leaf of the tree has its definite place and work. Apparently, all the leaves of the tree fulfill one and the same function, but in reality that is not true. There is no monotony in nature. When life becomes monotonous, it shows that people meddle in the affairs of each other. For example, someone asks why God has created the ox with horns on his head and hoofs on his feet. The man asks why he was created a man. According to me, the woman even till this day do not know whether they are women; the men also do not know whether they are men or not. Only to think they are men or women is one thins, but to know that positively, is another thing. The woman is discontented with her state that she was created woman. The woman is a great power. Should she be discontented with her state at that? The woman is an image of the Divine Love. If she does not bear that image within herself, she is not a woman. Such a woman can not understand life. You say: There is nothing to understand about life. Life is a struggle. — No, life is not a struggle, by any means. And there is no reason for man to fight and struggle in life. If he does that, a stronger one than him will come against him and knock him down. There is not a hero in the history of humanity who has not been conquered. Even the greatest heroes have been conquered in the end and have died. Every hero has a monument on which we read the inscription: Here lie one of the great heroes of the world. I say: those men are heroes, but they are not real heroes.

Therefore, do not regret the loss of transitory things. - But we lost our love. - Do not regret that love which can be lost. That love is the hero who dies. One can not rely upon such a hero. Someone says: Once upon, a time my heart burned with love, but today my love has died. Love which sets the heart on fire and then dies, love which springs forth and then dies up, is superficial. If you become inspired and say that you are ready to do all things for the Lord, but give up your idea on the very next day, what sort of love is that? Peter also said to Christ that his love is unwavering and that he will never leave Him, that he is ready to defend Him with the sword, but he did not hold out to the end. Until the cock crew twice, he thrice denied Christ. After that, Peter realized his mistake, repented and wept bitterly. He saw his weakness and realized wherein lies the heroism of man. Where fear exists, heroism can not thrive.

Therefore, the first tack of man is to become free of that inner, unnatural fear he has within himself. The only fear which is in its right place, is the fear man must have of losing his (ability to) love. It is a sacred fear. As soon as man loses his (capability to) love, he ends his life - all is finished with him. There is nothing else about which man must fear in life. All other fear is of no use. One may be afraid to die of hunger, or of losing his house or reputation, or his position in life, etc, However, all these things which cause fear in people are temporary and one must not be engaged with them too long. If you believe in God who has created you, there is no reason for you to cry and to despair, for you will never die of hunger and desolation. In the whole world there are spiritually advanced brothers who will never leave you alone.

I say, no matter into what state you may fall in life, take example from the prodigal son. After he had squandered all his money eating and drinking, he was forced to feed the swine, for he was not capable of doing any other work. What do the swine- symbolize? If you, from morning till night occupy yourself with negative thoughts and desires and with your sorrows, is not that the same as feeding swine? What must you do in such a case? Find a way to free yourself from that occupation. The swine are greedy animals. They ate up everything and did not leave even acorns for the prodigal son to eat.

After great sufferings, the consciousness of that son was aroused, he repented and said humbly: My father has so many servants who work for him and he feeds them. I shall also go to him as the least of his servants. There is no reason for me to stay in this foreign land, among people who do not love me. And truly, the negative thoughts and feelings of man can not have love towards him. In that state man can not live among beings who do not love him. The sufferings and misfortunes of people are due to the fact that they want to live in an environment in which love does not function. But why this is so, is not a question for discussion.

In ancient times the disciple of a Hindu teacher went to him to ask him for some rules in life. The teacher answered him: you must go to the cemetery and from grave to grave tell the dead the best things which will come into your mind. Then come to tell me what they have told you. The disciple went to the cemetery and spoke the finest things to the dead: that they are great people, saints, that they have done much for humanity etc. Then he strained his ears to hear some answer, but no voice could be heard. After returning to his teacher, ha told him what he had done. The teacher answered him: Now you should go to the dead to tell them the worst things possible, and see what they will answer you. The disciple went to the dead and told them the worst things. Upon returning to his teacher he said: Again there was no voice whatever. Then his teacher told him: "If you want to understand the meaning of life, learn a lesson from the dead - when they praise you and when they blame you, when you are happy and when you are unhappy - never say a word about it!

I say: All people have the weakness to find some one when they suffer and to tell him about it, thinking that will relieve them. When fortune visits them, again they seek someone to share their joy with. Do you know what these people can be compared to? They are like those rubber balls or rubber dolls with which children play. Those rubber balls have in the middle a small opening and when they squeeze the ball it gives a sound. The children are amused by these balls, press them and make then produce the sound. In the same way when suffering presses you, you utter a sound and begin to complain before people that a great misfortune has befallen you: I say: if you can examine suffering from a scientific point of view to see what lies hidden in it, it loses its sense for you. If you examine suffering calmly, you will see that there are reflex sufferings and direct sufferings which have relation to that special man himself. Reflex suffering, for instance is that tension and fear which you feel while watching a rope-walker perform different stunts. He walks on the rope without any fear, with absolute self-assurance and says: This is an art! But you who observe him are tense and full of fear that he may fall or lose his balance. And after you go out of this circus you say: - How I suffered for those people! I ask you: if that acrobat walks on the rope calmly, courageously with a perfect self-assurance, without fear, can you not, who believe in God, have as much courage and faith as he has? He who does not understand life will say about the acrobat: See by what means that scamp earns his living! If I where in your place, I would say, on the contrary: Behold a bold and resolute man! He has no faith in God, but only relying upon himself, he risks his life. Yet, I, who believe in God, am afraid even to voice my opinion, for fear people might think something bad about me. You, who believe in God, pray three times a day, yet even your own shadow frightens you, a dead man or bad dreams disturb you! What sort of faith is that which can not help you deal even with the smallest adversity?

Man has come to the earth to study. If he walks in the right way there is no reason for him to be afraid. What is there to fear in a bad dream? A sister from Tirnovo once told me one of her dreams: "I dreamt that my mother came to me and without saying anything, took a jug and gave me a blow on the head with it. The jug fell on the ground and broke into many pieces, while a certain yellow liquid substance started to flow from by head. I said: How strange! Could not my mother tell me a kind word which would make me happy, instead of breaking my head with a jug? Upon getting up in the morning what did I notice? My consciousness was awakened and I began to regard and study my life in a very different light. I saw my mistakes and was aware of a certain diversion from the right path of life. Thus I decided to return to the path God had drawn for me. I realized that the jug gave me a good lesson. It was an object lesson given to me by the invisible world which meant: If you continue to walk in the old way of life your head like this jug will be broken into pieces."

Therefore, man must not be a jug in the hands of fate which can break into pieces by a single blow. Does the jug gain anything by breaking? No, on the contrary, it loses something. However, the head of man gains something, for one begins to think and to see the mistakes in his life. When a jug breaks, take a lesson from that and be grateful that it broke instead of your head. After you break it, you will buy a new and better jug than the first one. You must be careful in life not to break your head like that jug. Thus, whatever misfortune comes to you, learn a lesson from it. Know that there are no casualties in nature. Every suffering or trial in its place, will bring enormous wealth in the future to those who understand it. If you survey the history of human evolution, you will see that this is the way toward the attainment of perfection. A great future lies ahead of man, for that reason he must study. The earth is a great school, a great university where the men have come to study. Christ also spent 33 years in this university. After He passed His final examination, He returned to heaven where He took the place assigned to Him. That is why Christ said to his disciples: "All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth." Another time He said: "Go ye, also, to preach and spread my teaching."

I ask you: should you be afraid, if you believe in Christ? He said Himself that all power was given to Him in heaven and on earth. Christ passed through great sufferings until He obtained that power. He carried His cross up to a certain place then He put it down by which He wanted to say: This is as far as I will carry your cross, from here on, I leave it for you to carry. I say: if there is something to marvel at, in the life of Christ, it is not the great suffering He passed through, but His unequaled endurance. In the face of Christ we see a soul which endured great contradictions. That endurance is worthy of imitation. He said: "I must fulfill the will of God no matter what comes!" This is character! Then He continued: "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Let Thy will be done!" I ask you: was Christ deceived in His faith? The One who had created Him, to Whom He had devoted His life and in Whom He believed, raised Him up. And after two thousand years, 500 millions of people walk in His path and work with Him. A day will come, when those who have not believed in Christ will follow Him also. Should you be afraid after all that? People today are afraid like the young maidens who are in love. The young maiden is always on pins and needles - she decks herself up and her heart constantly trembles: - What if my beloved forsake me? - What shall become of me, if he finds another more beautiful maiden than me? Then she throws away the flowers from her hair and become discouraged. But later she becomes gay again, she puts on her flowers and forgets her fear. At noon, the temptation comes again: But what if he forsakes me? If he finds a prettier girl than me? That which the young maiden experiences is just what you experience. You say: What shall I do, if God forsake me? Will He always occupy Himself with me? It says in the Scripture: "I inscribed your names in my palm." And really, in what better place can man's name be inscribed than on the palm of God? It is enough for God to look at His palm in order to see your name written there.

Thus, at the present time, as well as in the past, there is need of heroes. Heroism, not faint-heartedness, is required of people. Work and not vain talking is required of people. The Turks have a proverb: "Many words at the mill." And really, the mill makes much noise. Its noise is greater than the work it performs. However, the last place of the mill is in the fire. They will chop it up and put it in the fire. The mill-stone is also doomed to self-destruction. In general, the grinding of wheat at the mill does not represent an ideal for man. In the future, the wheat will not pass through such trials as it does today. People today grind the wheat and turn it into flour; then they knead it and make bread of it, which they eat after it is well-baked in the oven. Thus, the wheat undergoes certain trials until it becomes bread.

I say: as you see, the trials and contradictions are necessary in the present life. They are a privilege for the man who understands them. Man can not draw near to God without trials. The greater they are, the nearer man draws to God. If man has not experienced poverty, faithlessness, hopelessness, lovelessness, evil and darkness in life, he could never approach God and know Him. Only through trials can he understand what real love, hate and hope represent. Only in this way can he understand that love is stronger than lovelessness, hell and death; faith is stronger than faithlessness; hope is stronger than hopelessness; good is stronger than evil. It says in the Scripture: "One righteous man will pursue a thousand sinners, two righteous men will pursue ten thousand sinful men." That means that the strength of one righteous man is equal to that of thousand sinful men, while the strength of two righteous men is equal to that of ten thousand sinners. Therefore, if you are an upright man and meet a bear in the forest, do not run away from it, but rather stop it, take it by the ear and begin to talk with it. There is an example of this kind in the Scripture in the person of David who had fought with a bear and a lion and who finally fought with Goliath. Saul said to him: "Thou art not able to fight with Goliath, because thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul: "The servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. The servant smote both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them." I say: he who has fought with a lion or with a bear can easily deal with a man also.

You often, consider yourself weak. Yes, you are weak in one respect -in love. The power of men is determined by the quality of his love; the power of man is determined by the quality of his knowledge; the power of man is determined by the quality of his will. Therefore, he who has not come to know the Divine Love, the Divine knowledge and the Divine will, is a feeble man. When man is outside of the power of love, he is weak. When Christ was fasting 40 days in the wilderness, He was led to a mountain by the Spirit where His love was tested. And really Satan came and began to test Him by saying: "Behold, all these kingdoms are mine. If you bow before me, I shall give them to you." Christ answered: "My kingdom is not of this world." If one of these kingdoms were offered to a man of today, to become say, prime-minister of Bulgaria, he would immediately give up his creed.

For the affirmation of this thought, I shall tell you the following story. In the first days of Christianity, there lived a saint and a stone-cutter in the region of Alexandria. The saint made baskets and on his way to the city where he sold them, he passed by the hut of the stone-cutter who greeted him every time and invited him in his home to rest. After that he washed the feet of his guest and gave him to eat whatever he had to offer him. The saint was very pleased with the way that stone-cutter treated him. One day he turned to God with the words: “God, this stone-cutter does so much for me, he is a good and a honest men, but he is very poor also, for he works from morning till night and barely earns a living. I pray Thee, help him to become a little richer and to live like other people”. After he had prayed three times for him, an angel came and said to him: “Your wish to change the fate of this men is good, but he is not ready yet for a different position. If wealth be given him, he will become a bad man.” – “I think, on the contrary, that if wealth he given him, he will become better.” (Said the saint.) – “Let it be according to your wish”! (Replied the Angel.) “Go and tell the stone-cutter that in a certain place lies hidden a great treasure. Let him dig it up and dispose of it as he finds best”. The saint went to the stone-cutter and told him all the angel had said. The stone-cutter dug up the gold and immediately had a big house built in the city of Alexandria. He began to live luxuriously and soon become famous throughout the whole region. After that they made him first lord of the region. When the saint went to the city, the stone-cutter did not invite him in anymore, because he was busy with other affairs. One day the saint went to his home, but the stone-cutter pretended not to know him. – “Do you not know me?” – “No, I do not. Go your way. I have no business with man like you”. The saint continue on his way, but quite anxious, since he had realized that things were going from bad to worse. The angel met him on the way and said to him: “Do you see what you did? Did you now understand that the man was not ready for better conditions?” After that the angel caught him by the neck, gave him a good beating and said: “remember well what it means to change the fate of people!”

After seeing his mistake, the saint turned a second time to God with a petition to restore the original state of the stone-cutter and for himself to be given a chance to correct his mistake. This time also God heard the prayer of the saint. A great persecution had arisen against the stone-cutter in his role of a lord: suspicions, black-mailing, dismissals etc. He lost his social position and his riches and remained without a house and without money. When he saw himself in such a desperate condition, he took his tool again and started his stone cutting. Whenever the saint passed by him, he welcomed him in, rendered him services and excused himself for having been so careless towards him while being lord. – “I do not know what devil had taken possession of me that I did not welcome you into my house! I knew you very well, but was afraid of what people would say upon seeing I had dealings with such a poor man”. The saint smiled and said: - “Never mind”. Was not this affair settled well? After a few years the stone-cutter said to the saint again: -“Pray for me that I may become rich again.” – “No! I do not want to pray for you a second time. I do not want to be beaten anymore. Certainly you can have a better position than the present one”. Thus, the stone-cutter continued to cut stones.

I say: every man makes these stones and must cut them himself. These stones are necessary building material out of which man must, make his house. These stones are not to be sold, but rather to be cut and polished. What do the stores represent? They are those rude thoughts, feelings, acts and traits in the character of man which must be cultivated. Herein lies the inner meaning, the inner work of man. One day when we will have polished these atones, God will be satisfied with our life and we shall be contented. This does not mean that man can become learned or a saint in a very short period of time. Knowledge, talents and abilities are gradually attained. Therein lies the beauty of life. Sometimes people wish to become learned, rich, saintly and talented at once. I say: there does not exist such an order in the world. There is a certain correspondence between the great and the small: the small wealth, the small knowledge, the small thoughts and feelings which visit you, cost more than the great riches and knowledge. - When? When you retain them and cultivate them within yourself.

Now I shall give you an explanation of this idea. Imagine that you have a bottle or a vase made of some precious stone or diamond. This vase may be full of pure water, or it may be full of some poison or acid. The bottle itself may cost millions of sterling gold, but of what use can it be to you when it is full of poison? In case it is full of pure water, its price is greater. And inversely: you may have a pot made of clay, but full of crystal water. In case of thirst, the simple pot of pure water is preferable to the diamond bottle full of poison, I ask you: of what profit are your external riches, if you bear within yourself poison which is constantly gnawing you? The bodies of people today are not made of diamond, nor of a matter similar to precious stones, consequently they sin. A day will come when their bodies will be made of pure, fine matter like that of saints and angels, and they will not sin. It says in the Scripture: "He who is born of God does not sin." Only the man who has passed through all the phases of human development and has reached a state of complete stability, is born of God. Nothing in the world can draw him away from his right conception of life.

The apostle Paul says: "Nothing in the world can separate us from the Love of Christ." Yes, nothing in the world has power to separate man from the love of God. If someone wants to know what heaven is like, I say: heaven is a place of love, of knowledge and of good acts. He who enters into heaven has theno problem to manifest his love, his knowledge and his good acts. Since the inhabitants of heaven live in perfect harmony, they have need of nothing. If someone there has a temporary need of something, they all unite in helping him. The happiness of people depends upon their uniting together. If their consciousness awakes and they desire to receive and manifest love, all will be settled rightly. Only love is able to solve all the problems of life. But this love must not penetrate only the soul of one person, or one nation but of all nations on the face of the earth. When love manifests itself in the soul of a mother, she will love all children as her own. This is what true motherhood means! When a mother loves only her own children, it shows that her love is still at the animal stage, or at the most - at the human stage of development. That mother has not yet come to the state to love all children as God loves them. You say: how can a mother love all children as her own? - If she can not love in this way, she is not a mother. How can we love all nations as our own? - If you can not love in this manner, you have not any love. I ask you: what is your love for God, if you love only one person, or if you do not love everything He has created? Why do you love a certain person? You will say that you like certain things in him, that is why you love him. I ask you: would you love that man, if his love did not hold out?

A young count once fell in love with a young, beautiful German lady and often paid her visits, taking to her as a token of his love all sorts of gifts and flowers. Their relations came almost to the point of marriage. One evening they decided to take a walk around the city, but in order to do that, they had to pass across a near-by river in a boat. The servant rowed the boat and they reached the other bank safely. But just as they got out of the boat, several robbers ran against them who had waited for booty in the near-by forest. The count succeeded in escaping, but; the robbers, encouraged by his flight, attacked the lady all the more forcibly, in order to take from her all the money and jewels they could find. She started to cry and to defend herself, seeking the count with her eyes, that he might help her, but she remained bitterly disappointed when she saw that he had taken to flight, leaving her alone. However, the servant who had followed her, came immediately to her aid. He gave a heavy blow with his fist to the one rubber, then another blow in the face of the other and chased them away. Then he accompanied his mistress to her home. On the next day, the count went to the house of his fiancée with a bouquet in his hand to congratulate her on her safe escape, but she answered him: “Please, do not come a second time to my home!” I ask you: what must be your character - like that of the count or of the servant? One must have the character of the loyal servant, who can come to your aid in the most critical moment of your life.

I ask you: if in a given case you can not take the side of Truth, of Wisdom and Love, wherein lies your dignity as a man? What will recommend you when you go to heaven? The inhabitants of heaven are distinguished by their great patience. Contemporary religious and spiritual people can not tolerate one another and constantly complain of offences, but in spite of that, they hope to go to heaven and to be met their with music and songs. When they go to heaven they will complain there too, about the wickedness of men on earth. However, you must know that no complaints, whatever, are permitted in heaven. There all beings live only in love.

Now you all must endeavor towards an inner life. Only in this way can you stand firm through all the adversities and contradictions in life. You all have contradictions, but you are also given the possibility to solve them. There are occasions where you must be silent. It is an art to be able to keep within yourself your sorrow so that no one would even suspect it. When man is sorrowful, he must think. What must he think about? He must think about all the people who are sorrowful. There are people more sorrowful then him. If he is poor let him think that there are people poorer than him. If he is rich let him think about the rich people who, just like him, have not fulfilled the will of God. In his sorrow, in his poverty and in the state of a rich man, one must fulfill the will of God. What does the fountain do? It cleans up everything on its way. At first it forms mud, however after it has poured its water for several years, it cleans up all the place around it. The upright man is like a fountain: he cleans up everything on his way.

Therefore, do not become discouraged, because of your difficulties! Christ was not discouraged; the upright men and the saints did not become discouraged. In the same way, you must not become discouraged. When I turn on my radio, I constantly hear murmuring and complaining: the woman complains that her husband does not love her; the man complains that his wife does not love him; the son complains that his father does not love him; the students complain that their teachers do not love them. A strange thing indeed! The sky, the stars and the sun - everything loves you. What greater love do you want? You are enveloped by love and yet you seek the shadow of love. Why do you not appreciate the love which you have, but seek some other love? If you want me to love you, I will say: Look at the sun! Then I shall take you to a pear-tree and say: Take a ripe pear! Then I shall take you to a shop and say: Choose for yourself a nice suit of clothes! - But who will pay for it? - When Christ sent His disciples to the village to take the colt, did anyone pay for it? You say that everything in the world belongs to God, yet when it comes to the application of this, you do not think in this way. You must have the deep sacred faith that everything in the world belongs to God, but not to use this idea only for your own good. The benisons of God are for all people. All men must profit equally by them.

I say: we must all live for the One Who loves us. If we live for Him, we shall love one another. If we do not live for Him, we can not love one another. Therefore, if we live for God Who is in us, we shall love and understand Him and along with that, we shall love and understand one another. It we understand the Love of God in us, we shell understand all the other manifestations of love. Once we understand those things, all the goods will come to us. Therefore, kindle, first of all, the Sacred Fire in your own hearth! Take some coal and start the fire in your hearth! Do not take coal from your neighbors! As soon as you start the Stacked fire in your hearth, all love becomes meaningful. In that state, the love of the mother, of the friend and of the servant acquire sense and become comprehensible for you. The Divine Love gives meaning to all the manifestations of love. Feelings without love are of no use. Thoughts without love are of no use. They, resemble a beautiful, but dead body abandoned by its soul, i.e. by love. The Divine Love makes the feelings, thoughts and acts of people meaningful. Deposit this love deep within your soul and do not say anything about it. Your lips should be sealed with seven seals in regard to that love. Once one of the great adapts of Egypt was asked to say something about Love. He only pressed his lips and answered nothing. One can only be silent about the Divine Love. I have spoken much about Love, but not about the essence of Love. I have spoken only about the manifestations of love, but when I come to the essence of Divine Love I stop talking. Each time I come to the Divine Love I keep sacred silence. There is nothing more beautiful than that silence. It is a silence which speaks. When a rational man is silent, he is emanating something beautiful. The stove is also silent during the winter, but a pleasant heat emanates from it. The lighted candle is also silent, but it gives a soft light by which you read and study. The sun is also silent, but it emanates heat and light which give life to all beings.

When Christ was in the wilderness, Satan came to Him to tempt Him. He said to Him: "If Thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." But Christ answered him: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!” The Stones which you can climb upon are not the stones of the temple of God. The temple is within man himself and no one can climb upon it." Someone says that he has been to church - in the place of light. No, man can not be in the light, but the light can be in men. You say that you are in the White Brotherhood. This is also impossible. The White Brotherhood can be in man, but man can not be in the White Brotherhood. The White Brotherhood can enter and leave man, but man can not enter and leave the White Brotherhood. If the White Brotherhood enters into a person, he acquires a real understanding of life. If anyone thinks that he can enter the White Brotherhood, he is on the wrong path. The Spirit must enter into man and not man enter the Spirit. Christ says: "I abide in my Father." That means: Christ abides in the Divine Love and the Divine Love abides in Him. I say that you, also, must abide in the Divine Love, receive it and manifest it. May God also abide in you! Therein lies the power of man. If you abide in God and He in you, pray secretly in your soul. Do not become discouraged; no matter what trials you are passing through. Know that you will attain everything you desire. When? - This very day. If you fulfill the will of God you will receive today that which your soul desires. If your mother, father, brother and sister love you, you will never be in need of anything. If your teacher loves you, you will also never be in need. Why? Because God lives in you. In that state, everyone will fix his own lamps when they are damaged. He who denies God in himself, expects someone, from outside to came and put his inner installation in order.

Let us return now to the essential thing. You are all sent to the earth to work, to study and to become citizens of the Kingdom of God. You are sent here with the confidence that you will fulfill your mission as it ought to be fulfilled. God has endowed you with an excellent body, a sound mind, a noble heart and a strong will, and you are, obliged to preserve these qualities. God has endowed you, moreover, with a powerful spirit and a great soul, as a recompense of which, you must voluntarily, out of love, fulfill his will. When you realize this fact, you must say: "We will work in the way all awakened souls in the world are working for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth." A call for work is sent forth to all the awakened souls. Everyone must desire the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth! Everyone must desire to fulfill the Will of God on earth! Everyone must stand on the side of Love and desire the coming of the Eternal life. Everyone must stand on the side of Wisdom and desire the coming of light and knowledge! Everyone must desire the attainment of freedom! Only in this way can you become transmitters of the Divine and overcome all difficulties.

You ask: Why do difficulties come? Difficulties are a necessity, in order that the human will may become inured and fortified. How can the will of man be fortified? By perseverance. For instance, you are given a hard stone to break into pieces. You take the hammer and give it a blow, but the stone does not break. I say: Continue to hit the stone, it will break up into pieces. You hit it ten, a hundred, two hundred times, but still the-stone does not break. You become discouraged and put the hammer away. - Take it again and give the stone one more blow! You do it again - once, twice, three times. - Give it one more blow! You take the hammer - the last blow! and the stone breaks. I say: The last blow will break the stone and the Kingdom of God will come on the earth.

The greatest thing which we know in the world is life. It is not a question, how we conceive life, or how we feel and think about it. These are all particular and incomplete conceptions. We are speaking about life as a whole, which consists of that which we see outside, as its manifestation and that which is to be its future manifestation. Contemporary humanity is in the state of a child. People have an indefinite idea about life itself as well as about its manifestations. By the word 'life' we understand that which man desires. Man desires life. Knowledge, wealth, power, and all the external settings are pleasant only when life exists. All these things are only the conditions of life itself. If life did not exist, they would be of no purpose. Light is of no purpose without the eyes. Music-sound is of no purpose without the ears. The word is of no purpose without the human tongue.

Today, all people speak about the new in life, but wherein does it lie? You see a picture and you say: There is something new in that picture. - But you do not understand what is new in the picture. In order to realize the new in the picture, you must paint it. Another person says that the picture is beautiful. What is beautiful in the picture? You say that a person is beautiful. In what does his power and beauty lie? One must have tested everything he speaks about. It is not enough for you only to say that sugar is sweet, but you must have tasted it. Only the white colour does not distinguish the sugar from the other things of the same colour. There is an inner quality which determines the sugar. It is its sweetness. Therefore, every man has certain feelings in himself by means of which he recognises reality. As far as reality is concerned, you will find a number of philosophic conceptions according to which reality is something incomprehensible, just as Cod is invisible. I have an entirely different idea about the word "invisible" than the philosophers. When they say that God is invisible, they are expressing their literal conception of Him. That God is invisible is but one side of the question. He is visible, at the same time. Where is God visible? - In His smallest forms. For instance, all men see the sun, but who has seen it in its grandeur? The sun is one million and 500 thousand times larger than the earth. Who has seen it in that size? We all see the sun as a small ball, which we can carry under our arm. You say: How beautiful is this light ball! If I could take it into my house that it might shine there! - There is a great difference between that which you perceive and that which exists in reality. When the philosophers say that God is invisible, you understand exactly that which you have no conception of. You have no idea about the inner construction of things. Often times scientists speak about things which they do not know on the inside. For instance, someone starts speak about the sun and makes an analogy between the sun and the earth. He says that on the sun there are mountains, valleys, great oceans, rivers, planets, beautiful gardens and people similar to those on the earth, only much more beautiful and stately. As you hear that man speak about the sun you ask him whether he has seen that which he is speaking about. He has no seen anything, but supposes that all is as he says. And after all that, there will be people who will believe that. Many people believe in the assertion of some philosophers that God is invisible. And they repeat that assertion. On the one hand this is true, but on the other hand, it is not true. Every truth is halfway true and every falsehood is halfway false. But there is truth in every lie and in every truth, there is some falsehood. This is an aphorism. When I say that in every truth there is some falsehood, I do not consider the truth in its absolute sense, but I rather consider it as a fact which is regarded as a truth. Here is a state considered by people as a truth. They say: life is unhappy. This is not a truth. Why? There is absolutely no unhappiness in life itself. Only the life of some people is unhappy. Thus, in that truth, there is something false. You also say that the water is muddled. No, the water can never be muddled. It can contain different sediments and admixtures in itself, but these admixtures can by no mean change the constituency of the water. These elements may only dim the external appearance of the water, but absolutely no change can take place in its essence. Some years ago, I listened to a talk of an American professor who spoke to a great audience about the purification of water. He wanted to demonstrate to the public by a number of experiments, that no matter what admixtures are put in the water, it can be purified in such a way as to remain pure water again, without changing its chemical properties in the least. There were several bottles of water on the table, taken from different dirty places in New York and Boston and through a process of distillation he obtained absolutely pure water. As a proof of that, he drank of that already purified water. By those experiments, he proved that water can not be polluted.

On the basis of the same law, I say: We are in such a phase in which life can by no means be stained. Certain material admixtures, as man's thoughts and feelings, can temporarily and only externally stain the purity of life, but the essence of life can by no means be stained. For instance, some man is unhappy for the sole reason that the thought of being persecuted by someone, has entered into his mind and he is always expecting to be killed. Day and night he thinks that someone is pursuing him with the desire to kill him. He says: They are persecuting me. - Who is persecuting you? - I do not know, but someone is after me. And now, someone must come and try to take that thought out of his mind and convince him that no one is persecuting him. How will he convince the man? He must try to convince him by a number of proofs that no matter what a blow his enemy might inflict upon him, his knife could never stab his body. That knife is of such a nature that it cannot harm the human body.

Contemporary men are under the same delusion, that death can drive its knife into our bodies and we may die. At the same time, people preach that we can resurrect. However, how can one convince in the resurrection those ministers who maintain the idea that only the upright will resurrect, while the sinful can not resurrect since they are condemned to eternal fire and torment? On my part, I add: only those who have not died can not resurrect all who have died and who die will resurrect. How can you resurrect now while you are living? The resurrection implies a new life in a new form. Can the worm turn into a butterfly while it is still living? So long as it is worn, it can not become a butterfly. As soon as it stops being a worm, it turns into a butterfly. Consequently, man, such as he is, can never resurrect. The idea of the resurrection is not abstract, but it is difficult to speak about it, since every one has his own views about it. When people discuss a certain question, they do not consider the facts, reality itself, but rather their own personal views and theories and give their opinion whether their theory is right or not. It is not of importance to me whether a given theory in physics, chemistry, or some other science, is right or not. For me every scientific or philosophic assertion is true to the extent that it is an expression of the truth which exists in nature. If a certain theory is in accord with the truth, it throws light on the mind and satisfies men to a certain extent. However, if it does not throw any light in people's minds it may be excellent outwardly, but it does not satisfy people. Every theory of this kind is like a well-prepared meal, pleasant in appearance, but after half an hour causing certain reactions in the stomach, which shows that the food had not been as good as it had looked.

Therefore, every teaching must have a calming effect on man. The new direction of life is in a position to produce such an effect. There is a danger for the religious people in that they deny knowledge by saying: We have no need of knowledge. If we love God, love will give us everything. This shows that they do not understand love. Love does not exclude knowledge. He who excludes knowledge has no love in himself. You will quote the verse in the Scripture where it says that knowledge is the cause of pride. Yes, knowledge without love makes one proud, but knowledge with love imbues life with meaning and beauty. How you can answer that knowledge limits man. On the contrary, it gives man freedom. The truth can not abide in man without knowledge. Life, knowledge and freedom must become an indivisible whole. Do not allow any one to drive a wedge into your conceptions. No power in the world, be it of the physical, the spiritual, or the Divine world, is in a position to disintegrate the composition formed by life, knowledge and freedom.

I say: no matter what you think or how you philosophise, this is the foundation upon which you must place your life. If you do not have this philosophy, whatever you think will come to nothing some day. Today you think one way, but on the next day you say that you will die. Then you look upon your house and become sorrowful. There is sense in having a house, but if you do not die. Today you have children, but tomorrow they die. There is sense in having children, if they do not die, but if you and your children die what is the use of your coming into this world? You will say that God has created the world in this way. No, God has not created such a world as we have today. A world in which men die is not the creation of God, but of men. When God created the world, He wrote an inscription which He gave to Adam. It stated: You will live in the garden of Paradise through all eternity and you will never die. On the basis of these words, Adam was figuring out how many thousands of years, he would live. God said to him: Do not think about the years. If you can imagine a number composed of the number one with 15 zeroes after it and live through these years, I shall tell you after that how many years you will live. Do you know what an enormous number that is - the number one with 15 zeroes? It is something more than quintillion. This is all fine, but in life there must be something incomprehensible, i.e. unattainable. There exist two contrasts: the small and the great, i.e. the whole. The small can never envelop the great, i.e. the whole. That is an impossibility for the small, that is why it has ah eternal aspiration toward the great, an aspiration toward learning and obtaining knowledge. The small always studies.

Therefore, when a man can not put himself in the position of a small child, but thinks he knows much, or that he is strong and great, he loses his beauty and exposes himself to great and unpleasant surprises in life. When anyone tells you, you are strong, do not admit it until you have tested your strength. Make an experiment and see what weight you can lift. If you can raise a stone of 50 kilos weight, your strength is not great. The horse can carry a load of 500-1000 kilos. Therefore, the horse is much stronger than you. The elephant, on the other hand, is much stronger than the horse. Thus, you must avoid to make comparisons between different things. If you compare things, you spoil their beauty. When two maidens compete about their beauty, they lose it. People lose their beauty for the sole reason that they admit in themselves certain elements foreign to the nature of beauty. The beautiful girl who wins the beauty-contest, becomes proud, while the one who loses it, is embittered. In the first case, the pride and in the second - the anger are the foreign elements which spoil beauty. The girl who loses in the contest, says to the one who wins: You will see what I shall do to you! - How many famous beauties have lost their beauty, on account of jealousy! What misfortunes in life have come upon so many beautiful girls and men! You read often in the papers of people who attack beautiful girls in many different ways, in order to spoil their beauty, as throwing sulphur acid in the face of someone etc. It is good for a beautiful person to wear a veil on the face, in order that other people may not see him. Beauty is an inner quality. The only place where the real worth of beauty may be rightly evaluated, is the rational world. By the words rational world, I mean - the Divine world. Beauty may be appreciated properly only in the rational world. Beauty is something living. The external side of beauty is expressed by power. Therefore, the power of man lies in his beauty. The power of man is determined by the degree of his beauty. There is a certain correspondence between power and beauty. This correspondence is due to a harmonious combination of the forces operating in man. The beautiful person may not be conscious of the harmonious combination of his forces, but nature has already given him credit. She herself takes delight in his beauty. Wherever the beautiful person goes, all doors open before him. Wherever he goes, all bow before him and say: - Come in! The beautiful person sheds happiness to all people. And really, only the beautiful people bring happiness in the world. Beauty has several qualities which distinguish it: goodness, power, delicacy and wisdom. The beautiful people are wise. Some may answer that the ugly people are also wise. No, an ugly person can not be wise. If he is wise, his wisdom is due to the beauty which he has possessed at sometime in the past. His present ugliness, on the other hand, insures his future ignorance. It has been note that when a person loses his knowledge, and becomes ignorant, he begins to grow ugly.

I shall cite an example from life, to show you how a handsome young man gradually lost his beauty. Many years ago there was a handsome youth in the High school of Varna - almost the nicest looking person in the whole school. When he walked in the streets, people turned to look at him and to admire his beauty. What was my surprise when several years later, I saw that man in Sofia - his face grown rude, his eyes swollen, his body grown stout - there was not a trace of his former beauty! When he saw me, he stopped and began to speak to me: See what life did to me! I am no good. Nothing remained of my beauty! Where are those happy years? I missed something in life, which I can never find now. He suffered from heart disease and his days were numbered. Until he had not lost his beauty, he enjoyed perfect health - he was a healthy, strong and stately youth and very talented at that. I say: when a person loses his beauty, he falls into a peculiar state in life.

By this example, I want to make you consider the fact that Providence has deposited certain things in man, which he must guard carefully, in order not to lose them. He can preserve these qualities only when he understands the material world. The material world is composed of all those things which are mobile. From the human point of view, all those forms which comprise the material world, are in a state of rest, i.e. they are not organised. Therefore matter in itself is inert, immobile. The slightest movement, on the other hand, is a sign of life. Life gives an impulse toward motion to all matter. Therefore, when life penetrates matter, it cultivates that immobile inert mass and produces numberless different forms out of it. That is why we may rightly say that life gives form to matter, as a consequence of which a process of refining and ennobling begins to take place within it. In a word - the immobile, the indolent begins to evolve. Wherever there is evolution, there is movement. Wherever there is movement, there is life. Life, on the other hand, is one of the elements of the spiritual world. The Divine world is characterised by thought and rationality. Thereby we draw the conclusion that every kind of movement includes an element of rationality. Thus life imbues that which is inert and irrational, i.e. matter, with rationality and motion. When you connect an irrational form with motion and the conscious life, it becomes significant for you.

Thus, man is composed mainly of three elements: of an inert element, which is matter; of a mobile element, which is life and of a rational conscious principle. These three elements represent the idea of life. So long as you connect motion with life, you can heal yourselves and be healthy. But as soon as you admit the thought that the motion can be stopped, you will come to the inert element in life. And then you begin to ask the question whether matter really exists. Of course, matter exists I do not maintain the theory that matter is an illusion. The material world is a real world. Matter is a reality which serves as a foundation for the manifestation of life. Motion, on the other hand is the foundation for the manifestation of rationality. However, this does not mean that motion depends on matter, or rationality upon motion. They do not proceed one from the other, but each element serves only as a basis for the manifestation of the other. The beauty of matter lies in that it is immobile. When it acquires mobility, its nature changes. In the same way when motion becomes immobile, it changes its nature.

Often men have a desire to be more in a state of rest than in motion. That desire, however, is dangerous. Why? Man can not remain in a single position, as only in rest. If he comes to such a state, he must know that such state is proper to matter. Only matter rests and remains immobile. When he comes to life, he must be happy that he works and moves, because motion is the quality of life. And finally, when thought comes, he must be happy for that element. It shows that his thought, his reasoning powers become active. Man must be happy about the three elements in his life: rest, motion and thought, and know also, that he has not come to earth to solve all the questions of life. The Creator of the universe has not sent man to earth to give an explanation to life, or to determine the bounds of this world, or to figure out how many worlds exist. No one till today has solved these problems, neither you can solve them. According to the occult science, the present universe has existed for millions of years, but one day it will disappear and will be replaced by a new universe. This is to say that throughout eternity, numerous worlds have existed and disappeared, and new worlds will be created. Therefore, in the situation as it is, do not attempt to count out the number of those worlds. There are millions of worlds in the universe and you can never count them all. Do as the Turks do when they come to so difficult problem. They say: "Seven storeys up and seven down" - and then they stop. How many are seven storeys? If you take one storey as ten metre you will have 70 Meters in all. How high is 70 meters? Even if you take one storey as one thousand meters, you will have seven thousand meters. What height is seven thousand meters?

Now let us consider the question of education. Why? Because if you do not come to the new outlook of life, yon can not rectify your present life. All men are frightened by the crisis and the catastrophies in life. Whether you read the papers, or talk with, people, you always hear them tell of different misfortunes and losses: a car had run over a person; a train had killed a man; so many houses had burned up; so many ships had sunk, etc. All men are under the spell of a terrible insinuation and every one expects something awful to happen in his life and to listen to his funeral-speech from his grave. What sort of life is this when you are expecting your last hour like a man condemned to death by hanging who is expecting the executioners to enter his cell and to lead him out to the scaffold? If you are man of learning, yet you tremble at all times at the thought that you are going to die, what sort of knowledge do you possess? Real knowledge is that which can set man free from the eternal fear and anxiety about his life and to make him say: I am one of those men who do not die. I can change, but I can not die. And in fact, we are continually changing. You see a beautiful child today, but you meet him after several years entirely changed - he has become a grown up person who has lost his beauty. The child has changed, he has matured. The apostle Paul says: "We shall all change, but we shall not die."

I ask you: what life is this in which men always suspect one another? The son meets his father with a young girl and immediately suspect him. The daughter meets her mother with a young man and suspects her. The sister meets her brother with a beautiful young girl and suspects him. The nobility of man lies in this: when he sees his mother, father, brother or sister with young men or girls, to feel his heart throb joyfully and to think the best and the finest about them. Why must you think the worst? You say: It is impossible for man not to sin. What an absurd idea! How have you coma to the conclusion that man can not live without sinning? - But we see that he commits sin. - Man sins, because he wants to sin, not because God has created him to sin. Man is good by nature, but he stains himself. He stains himself at least, ten times a day and God constantly cleans and washes him up. As soon as he is washed, he goes in the mud like the buffalo, and becomes muddy again. Why does the buffalo roll in the mud? He says: If I do not roll in the mud, the flies will bite me. Thus, the small flies have forced the big buffalo to roll in the ponds and become muddy. What sort of philosophy is this? The great buffalo with horns and hoofs is frightened by the small flies and has gone into the muddy ponds to keep them off his back!

A new philosophy is being given to the world today, which man must begin to study. In this respect, every man must ask himself what is his pre-destination and what place he takes in nature. As soon as he comes to this state, he will stop to worry. Worry is a secondary thing in life. Man must ask himself each day and solve the important question for himself: why he has come to earth and what work he must accomplish. Each man has a certain work assigned to him which he must accomplish, by all means. Let every one ask himself what is his position and work in life. If you observe the life of the bees in a hive, you will see that there, the work of each one is strictly determined. The queen lays eggs, while the workers gather honey by going away and returning into the hive continually. There are other bees which produce music and they also fulfil their work by that. They are musicians. During hungry years, the workers kill the players and say: We have no need of lazy players; however, when fruitful years come and they become rich again, they give place to a greater number of musicians and do not kill them. People call the players in a hive lazy bees, but I call them 'the beautiful musicians of the bee-hive'. So long as these musicians make music in the hive, you can take honey from it. When the workers begin to kill them, it is bad for them, but it is bed for the people as well. You must wish that there might be players in the hives, for there will be honey them; but as soon as the workers begin to kill them, it is not good both for them and for the people - there will he no honey.

Therefore, so long as beautiful people exist in the world, there will be honey; but when they begin to disappear, the honey decreases. Why? Years of crises have come in life. As long as there are strong men in the world, there will be freedom; But as soon as the power and strength of people decreases, slavery comes into life. While rationality exists in the world, happiness visits mankind. When rationality is decreased and disappears, all misfortunes come. Someone asks: Shy am I unhappy? - Because you are not wise. Why am I weak? - Because you have no strength - you are not beautiful. Every man must desire to be beautiful. For this purpose, he must bear in his mind the image of some beautiful person. As you walk along the street and see a man with a beautiful forehead, or eyes, stop your attention upon him and try to paint his picture. In this way, you will learn to retain beautiful image in your mind. As you walk in a mountain, stop your glance upon some beautiful landscape and try to paint it.

Therefore, if you want to develop some noble qualities in you, stop like the painter upon some beautiful image and work upon yourselves. Only in this way you can advance. If you go to heaven among the angels, you will find yourself surrounded by beauty. The angels are very beautiful beings. If an angel should come down to the earth, all men and women, all men of learning will begin to follow him. The beauty of the angels is great and no one can stand it. And if the angels do not want to come to earth today, it is because they do not want to cause unhappiness to people. In this respect they are high and noble. Since they know that man cannot attain their beauty at one breath, they keep themselves out of their sight, in order not to disappoint them. When hey must come to earth, they put on the humblest clothes, in order not to tempt people. However, there are cases when angels have visited earth in all their beauty and glory and he who has been able to see one of them, has immediately fallen prostrate on the earth. Deniel, a famous prophet of Israel, upon seeing such an angel, had lost his consciousness and fallen on the ground. The angel had been forced to approach him and make him stand on his feet. This shows that people can not yet bear, the powerful, the noble, and beautiful in the world. The angels are men who have lived on _the earth at some time in the far past, and who have passed through a special zone of suffering and conflict before attaining to perfection. Therefore – they have passed from the human race into the race of the perfect, or into the state of angels. The perfect people, or the angels serve as models for humanity. There are not artists today, who could paint an image of angelic beauty. Why? Because beauty is an intangible quality. The beautiful man has self-assurance and never gets discouraged. He does not know what discouragement or loss of faith is. And being conscious of his beauty, he is as natural as the really rich men who has no fear, whatever, of impoverishment. However, the day that man loses his beauty, he falls, into a state where only a good outward appearance is maintained without any wealth back of it.

To sum up: we said that matter is distinguished by inertia, life - by motion, while the spirit - by rationality. Hereby we can draw some rules by which man must live. In certain respects, man must be inert like matter. When must he be inert? When it is a question of crime, of temptation and evil. As soon as he falls upon one of these states, he must be inert and not move from his place. But when he falls upon the good, he must be mobile like life. This is the true moral. However, if he should do the contrary thing, namely be mobile as life in the evil and inert like matter in the good, he will cause the greatest misfortune to himself, as he will thus give way to the evil in him. Immobility is one of the good qualities of matter; mobility is one of the good qualities of life, but if both are not employed in their own place they will give rise to the evil in the world. Therefore, in time of sorrow and suffering, be immobile like matter; in time of happiness and joy, be mobile like life. Then in time of joy say: May all Bulgarians, all Englishmen, all Americans, all men on the face of the earth live in the good! By the word 'good' I understand that which is mobile. If all people lived in the good, life would of itself become meaningful. In this way, people would attain to an inner liberty in life.

Now, you often come against contradictions in life which you can not deal with and you say: What does that person think of me? - If you wont to know what a person thinks about you, observe his eyes and his mouth. If his eyes move much and if his mouth moves, he has, by all means, two opinions about you: so long as you give, you are good for him, but when you stop to give, you become bad. If you smile at him, there is no better man than you, but as soon as you become serious, there is not a worse man than you. If you meet a person whose eyes and mouth are calm, he wants to tell you by that calmness: Look calmly upon all things created by God. When you meet a sage he will not tell you to look at him, but he will attract your attention by the calmness of his eyes which speak to you. They say: I acquired, this state of calmness by looking upon all things in nature created by God. Since God is calm, why should I be unquiet? - But I owe to such and such a person ten thousand leva. - In that case, you must apply your prudence.

Here is what you must do: you should go to the men who has lent you a thousand leva several years ago and which sum has increased to ten thousand with the interest and say to him: Brother, you want your money back and you are right in that. However, I can give you only one thousand leva - the mother of the money, but the remaining nine thousand leva and the interest, is impossible for me to pay. You are a rich man; agree to accept the thousand leva. If he does not agree to that, by any means, invite him to go with you into the forest, in order that you may dig out your wealth and. then pay him. When he is in the forest with you, say to him: Do you agree to give up the nine thousand leva, and to accept the one thousand which I am offering you? If you do not agree to renounce that sum, I shall take out my revolver. He will immediately give up his desire for the interest and accept the sum of one thousand leva. As you see the question is easy to settle. The rich man will see that he has dealings with a good man. If the debtor was not a good person, the life of the creditor would be taken. You will say that the debtor threatens him. I ask you: does not the creditor frighten his debtor by requiring such a high interest of him? - Yes, but that is a deceitful way of acting. - The creditor is using deceitful means also. Therefore, the acts of both the rich and the poor men can be wise, but they can also be extremely senseless! Intelligence and sense is required of both poor and rich. The eyes of both the poor an£ the rich men must be immobile while they are facing evil, while they must be free, i.e. mobile, while looking at the good.

This is the teaching which present-day people must be taught. The preset education does not give men a way out in their life. Why? Because they have no foundation upon which they could place their life. All the experiments 1 have made till now for the rectification of humanity by the old methods, have proved unsuccessful. However, all the experiments I have made according to the new methods, have turned out successful. You say: Which is the new method? In order to learn the new method, you must put yourself in the position of a horse, while the one who will give you that method, should mount you, put a bridle on you and start to direct you, observing you whether you will subject to the new teaching or not. If he should leave to wander wherever you want to, you will be lost, by all means. The Divine principle in man constantly liberates him from the limitations of the old life, but much time does not elapse before he takes the old way again. Then the Divine bridle comes again and puts him back on the right road. Which are the Divine reins? They are the constant sufferings, births, death and reincarnations. - Man's hair has become grey from reincarnations. You say: - How long shall we be born and reborn? - Until you learn to subjugate yourselves voluntarily to the Divine laws; until you become as immobile for the evil as matter and mobile for the good as life; until you become as intelligent as the spirit which has come out of God and works within man. As soon as you have attained all this, all the chains which oppress you, all mischance, failures and unhappiness will vanish and you will find yourselves in a world where you will have at your disposal all the wealth which nature has bestowed to this world. This wealth is the universal inheritance of all the beings created by God. He knows the needs of these beings for which reason, He has provided a special budget for each being, in order that every one may live a peaceful life of growth and development.

Now I want to give you hope and tell you upon whom you may rely in life. You may rely upon a rich man who loves you; you may rely upon an intelligent man who loves you; you may rely upon a strong man who loves you. Thus, you can always rely upon a person who loves you and never upon one who does not love you. If you rely upon those who do not love you, you are on the wrong path. Rely only upon those who love you, no matter how small they may be! Do not be angry with those who do not love you, neither reproach them or want anything of them. You say: Are there people in the world whom we can rely upon? - Of course, there are.

I shall cite an example from life to show you that men are not such as you sometimes think them to be. Some years ago I travelled from Varna to Sofia by foot with an acquaintance of mine - a man who was an extreme pessimist. He had very perverted ideas about the Bulgarians, especially about the military officers and said that he had never met any officer in his life who was capable of doing good to a person. I listened to him without answering anything back. We passed across the river Kamtchia and reached Messemvria (Nessebar) at 12 midnight. I said to him: This night we shall go to the officer on guard. - How is that? Are you joking with me? They will arrest us immediately at that spot. - Never mind, let us try it. We went to the house of the border-officer, knocked at the door and immediately a young office- core out and invited us pleasantly to enter in. He asked us where we came from and a long two-hour conversation thus began. After that he offered us tea and a light supper and invited us to spend the night with him. In the morning, we prepared ourselves for the journey. The young officer walked a certain distance to see us off. He walked with us as far as one kilometer outside the city limits. Then my friend turned towards me and said: There are good people among the officer class as well. I say: There are good people everywhere in the world, but you must find yourself at 12 midnight by that young officer, in order to be convinced in this fact.

Therefore, rely upon the good people in the world who are inert like matter in regard to evil; mobile like life in regard to the good and wise like the Spirit which is working within them.

All men use the word "attention." The teachers tell their students to pay attention to the lessons they are taught. The parents tell their children to pay attention and not to do any mischief. Therefore, everyone must understand the meaning of the word attention. Attention implies the idea of a wakening. Man cannot have any relations without attention. The relations man makes in his life depend upon his attention. At times man is attentive out of fear. He is like a child just learning to walk who is very careful not to fall and moves his feet very cautiously. The heart of that child is full of fear from falling. Such attention is similar to that of a thief, who walks slowly turning this and that way to see if anyone is watching him. At times, man is attentive not out of fear, but out of expectation. He is like a prisoner being condemned to death who is straining his ears to hear from which place his salvation will come. He is attentive, listens carefully with the hope that someone might come to bring him the good tidings of his acquittal.

Therefore, the best and most beautiful thing in life is attention. Man has come to earth to rejoice. About what? He must not rejoice at his clothes neither at the position he occupies, but rather rejoice that he has come into the world of God to expect the rising of the sun. All his attention must be concentrated upon the rising sun. The rising of the sun does not depend upon the clothes of man, neither upon his wealth and conceptions of life, nor upon his power and beauty. The rising of the sun is in power to comfort the human soul. The rising of the sun gives an impetus to the human spirit. One may be well-clothed, but of what use would his clothes be, if he were blind? Or if he were dumb, of what use would be his nice clothes? When the sun is rising, the most important thing for man is that which he can see. When nature is awaking, the most important thing for man is that which he can hear.

How I say to you: be careful how you see and what you see! Be careful of how you hear and what you hear! Make it a daily problem in your life to see only that which is beautiful and to hear the Word of God which is speaking to you from within. Whenever you come across something negative, put it away from you and give your attention only to the fine and beautiful in the world. This is the natural state of man. When you are entering a flower-garden or an orchard, upon what do you stop your attention? Upon the beautiful flowers and fruit. In the same way, the odorous flowers draw your attention. What more natural than that? This is a fact out of actual life, but it is not the truth. Why is it not the truth? Because the truth sets men free.

Every beautiful flower spreading its perfume far and wide can cause you joy but it can not change your life by any means. That flower says to man: You can also do what I do, but you must be careful in your life. What do people do today? When they see a flower which attracts their attention, they pick it. No, do hot pick the flowers, but see what they do. You may see a pure beautiful spring. Do not desire it to flow in your own garden! See what the spring does and you do the same. You see a fine book. Do not desire to have it in your own library, but read it and see what is written in it. The book says: Read me through and take for yourself only that which you can understand. The rest, which you do not understand, is not for you. You find a big treasure on your way. Stop carefully in front of it and take only one golden coin out of it. The rest of the gold is for the other people who will pass that way after you. This is the way the prudent man will act, while the foolish man will take all the money, after which he will be caught and proved guilty by the court that he has taken money which belongs to other people.

There are a number of cases which men have not thought about. You your selves have not thought about them either. You come across contradictions, sufferings, misfortunes and difficulties, which you explain in different ways, but all these explanations are of no profit to you. For thousands of years men have tried to give an explanation to these questions, but they always regain unexplained. For thousands of years people have tried to study these problems, but they always remain ignorant about them. What is the reason for that? They have the desire to find an explanation to these questions and are striving to study them, but their fault is that they have chosen a wrong method for that attainment. That is why up to this day, men have not had admittance to the great reality of things. The predestined purpose of this reality is to inaugurate man into the knowledge of the Truth. The acquirement of the Truth, on the other hand, determines the meaning of life. To attain to the Truth, is to enter into the Eternal life which we seek and strive after.

This morning I want to speak to you as to people in perfect health who have no contradictions in life. I shall not speak, at that, neither about sickness, nor about health. Illness is the contrary to health and inversely health is the contrary to illness. However, to speak about illness is to lose the good disposition of the spirit one has. If the healthy man speaks about illness, he admits that some day he may become ill. To think you can become ill speaks of a certain experience you must have had, in consequence of which you think that the same experience can be repeated. Illness takes from the human body certain elements, but does not add anything to it. He who has been ill, has always given something of his weight. After he becomes well again, he restores to his body that which he has lost. Therefore, he who gains is a healthy man; he who loses is a sick man. He who lives well is healthy; he who does not live well is ill. This is enough for you to know illness and health represent, so do not try to go further in your investigation about these two states in life. One of the qualities of health is cheerfulness. The healthy man is always cheerful, vigorous and ready for work. The ill person is indisposed, discontented and has no desire for work. When anyone asks him to work, he considers the weather, whether it is good or bad. To the sick man either the weather is not nice, or people are bad etc. His illness causes him to look negatively upon all things. The poor man is also like the sick person: for him also the weather is bad or the people are evil and cruel. It follows that poverty is illness, while wealth is health.

All people today are striving after the essential thing in life. What is the essential in life? Some people maintain that the essential thing lie in the reality of things. One of the qualities of reality is repetition. This repetition of things is characterized by an eternal diversity. In the world of reality, there is a repetition of phenomena and facts, which are never the same. Repetition in which there is monotony brings death. There is nothing more dangerous than monotony. Suppose that a friend of yours has given you a thousand leva and comes every day to your home to tell you that he has given you a thousand leva. He tells you that today, tomorrow, the next day and continues to do it for years on end. What would be your state? One day a village squire, a great miser, had bought a sheep's liver for a poor man. Everyone he met, he told him about the liver he had bought for the poor man. Each tine he met the poor man, he told him he had bought a liver for him, until the poor man became tired of that. He bought a liver one day and threw it into the face of the rich man, saying to him: - I do not want your liver or your help! I say: do not imitate either the squire or the poor man! This example is not for imitation, but for a lesson. When you give or say anything to a man, leave him free. He will think about it himself and learn his lesson. Do not ever cause a man to get out of patience. Leave him free to express his gratitude as he finds best.

Remember the following rule: Do not oppress people or your own spirit who guides you. It says in the Scripture: "Do not oppress, i.e. grieve the Spirit Who directs you!" How can you grieve the Spirit? Man grieves the Spirit by his constant discontentment and ingratitude. He is always discontented for not having this or that thing, or that he is not given the things he wants, as some rich men whom he sees have everything in life: meat, nice clothes etc. That is the state of the poor man for whom the rich squire had bought the sheep's liver. The rich man grumbles and the poor man grumbles: the rich man has a special way of grumbling for certain things and the poor man has his own day of grumbling for other things. When the poor man grumbles, some rich man will buy sheep's liver for him, but he will pay dearly for it. When the rich man grumbles, there, will come a poor man who will throw the liver into his face and thus express his ingratitude. A great self-control is required of both poor and rich. According to my opinion, the poor man must not envy the condition of the rich man, but when he sees him eat and drink, he must thank God for having given him the possibility to enjoy the blessing of life, while he should be grateful, at the same time that hi is deprived of them. In case he desires to have the goods of the rich man for himself, he would cripple his own life, his own soul.

Therefore, the great and beautiful in life lies in man's gratitude to God for that which God has given him. That which God has given to man is only temporary - for that given moment. It can never be repeated. Things are not repeated in the life of eternity. Knowing this, man must appreciate that which God has given him. This evaluation of things depends upon the understanding of man. The misfortunes and sufferings of people depend upon their ideas of life. Someone is unhappy, because such is his idea and comprehension of things. For instance, you give a nice pear to an old man, but he takes it, looks at it, turns it this way and that and sighs. Why does he sigh? Because he has no tooth and cannot chew. But since the pear is nice it tempts him. He cuts it up into pieces and swallows them up. After half an hour, he feels pains in his stomach and says: Am I the only one who always suffers from such pains? What suffering is that? He has received the best thing - a nice, ripe pear, but the cause of his suffering lies in another place. In order not to suffer, the old man should have acted in the following way: he should nave called a small child and asked him to pound the pear in a small mortars. Then he would have given half the soft pear to the child and eaten the other half himself. In that way the child would have been contented and the old man would not have suffered.

Therefore, every man must learn to share with his neighbour the blessings God has given him. In sharing their blessings, men must be prudent not to bore one another. There is nothing better in life than to do a good act on time, to say a kind word on time, or to cast a glance at the right place. There is no greater, science than this. What greater knowledge than to know when to speak and what to speak? Many of the sufferings of people are due to the very ignorance and disregard of this science. It is a great, Divine science! It is an art for man to know how to listen, what to listen and what not to listen to.

All people strive after riches. They are right in that. It is good for a man to be rich. God also has the desire to give riches to all people. Wealth has two sides: an external and an internal side. Thus, it is important for man to know what sort of wealth he desires, and seeks. The healthy man is rich; the enlightened man is rich; the good man is rich, etc. Man must pass through all the phases of wealth. He who chooses the material wealth expressed through money and possessions, will attain to the external side of life, such a rich man may, or may not be educated. However, these riches will, by all means, cause him trouble. Material wealth is a burden for man. If you load a horse with gold or precious things, he will perspire, at least, ten times before he takes it to its definite place. If you make the saddle, the reins and the shoes of the horse golden, he may look handsome, but he will say in the end: I do not want anything, but my freedom. Neither the golden load, nor the golden saddle and shoes make me happy. There is nothing, more beautiful, both for the horse and for his master, than liberty. And yet, the condition of the horse is better than that of his master. The horse will leave his load in the house of his master and feel light and free, while the master will receive his gold, rejoice over it, but, at the same time, will load himself. Man cannot be happy, if his horse is unhappy. The horse groans and suffers under his heavy load, while the man is happy over his riches, but his happiness is temporary, consequently - external. The horse says: My back is bruised by the heavy load. The master says: Never mind that your back is bruised, I will be happy. No this is a wrong understanding of life! This is not a Divine order of things. Tomorrow the roles will change: the master will take the place of the horse while the horse - that of the master. It is impossible for the master to be happy when the servant is unhappy. And inversely: it is impossible for the servant to be happy when his master is unhappy.

You say: But that is a horse, he does not feel like man. - If you regard things externally, only their forms, that is true. However, as a soul the horse does not differ from man. The form, which the soul of the horse has entered into, is limited and does not give it the possibility to manifest qualities which the human body manifests. If the soul of the horse should enter, into a human body, it will manifest human qualities which the form of the horse does not permit it to manifest. Therefore, you should know that the horse understands and feels the things in life much more keenly than you can imagine. When a master is rude and cruel towards his horse, the latter turns to God with the words: God, put more love in the heart of my master that he may be more patient and condescending towards me. I am ready to carry all his load, but let him be more calm and not hurry so much. This is the way the horse prays within himself. This is the way the wise master must act toward his horse: he must take half the load and put it on his own back and the other half - on the back of the horse, thus they will start together and have a friendly talk on their way. What sort of a man is that who cannot make himself equal with all souls? What does it mean - to make oneself equal with all souls? This means - to acknowledge the Divine in every soul. He who acknowledges the Divine principle in every soul, will never say: That is a horse, or that is a bird, or a tree! What are you then? I am a man who is solving the great problems of life. He who reasons in this way will inevitably come against many contradictions in life. God is watching at every moment how a man acts toward the animals and plants and then draw: his conclusion about that man.

Thus, as God watches us, at all moments, He either grieves or rejoice. He grieves when our thoughts, feelings and acts are wrong and rejoices when our thoughts, feelings and acts are high and noble. God does not rejoice the upright, but rather at a sinner in whom He sees the minutest good in thought or act. He immediately takes out His note-book and marks down the time, the day and the hour when that sinner has done a small good act. And because of that small joy which the sinner has caused God, some day He will give him a great blessing. What could be more pleasant, for anyone than to cause, at least, a small joy to God? We have come to the earth exactly for that reason - to cause, at least, a small joy to God. This must be our ideal! Now all men want to be happy and they can be happy. But how? If we cannot, by a small thought, feeling or act cause joy in the One Who has given us everything, we cannot have a foundation upon which to build our happiness. Therefore, men lose their happiness for the sole reason that the foundation upon which it is built, is not solid. And anything not placed upon a solid foundation disintegrates in the end. Thus, the happiness of man depends upon his aspiration to cause the smallest joy to God.

You say: God is perfect, He has no need of us, or of our causing Him joy. - You do not understand what perfection means. Imagine that several people write the letter “L” on the blackboard. One of them will write the capital letter “L”, another - the, small “l”, while a third one will write the same letter broad, or narrow, etc. No matter how they write the letter, they will all write the same letter only with a small difference in the writing. When someone writes the letter “1” small, it shows that he is a miser who is careful not to waste much time or paper. He says: If I write a letter to someone with large letters, I shall waste much paper, ink and time. It is better to write the letters small, thus make some economy. No, when a man writes a letter to someone, especially a love-letter, every word must emanate perfume, sweet odour such as the flowers emanate. Every letter a man writes, bears the stamp of the condition the writer has been in while writing that letter. One can judge about the life of a man by the first letter of his letter. And notice that a person can never write a letter twice in just the same way. As many times as he writes it there will be a slight, barely noticeable difference. As the thoughts, feelings and acts represent symbols through which is manifested the life of people, in the same way the letter determine the character of each man. If you observe the writing of a man in childhood, youth and ripe age, you will see that the way he has written the letters in these three phases of life are thoroughly different. The letter: are the same, but their writing is different. In the three phases of his life, man has imported something particular to every letter, which corresponds to his thought at each stage. The letter reveals the character as well as the state man has been in, while writing it. If you are sensitive when you receive a letter you can guess whether it is written with love or not, only by touching it. A letter written with love is in a state to transform even the most negative disposition of the spirit. It is enough for you to hold that letter for a while in your hand without reading it, in order that your disposition may change and that you may pass into a higher octave of the spirit. However, if the letter is not written with love, as soon as you touch it, you will feel a certain coldness. Such a letter is in a state to lower, not to raise your spirit.

The whole nature is full of love letters written by God. Every fruit is such a letter. When you take a fruit, close your eyes, concentrate your thought and see what you will feel. Whatever you feel, that is what the fruit says. The power of the fruit is hidden in that which is written in it. If you do not reason in this way, you will never acquire the strength hidden in that fruit. In the same way man must acknowledge that his thoughts are the fruit of his mind and his feelings - the fruit of his heart. If he does not recognize the qualities of his thoughts and feelings as qualities of fruit, he will never profit by the power and knowledge deposited in them.

Great is the world of God! It is created for us. It is created for each one separately. A day will come when you will receive a ticket to traverse at liberty the expansive, boundless world of God. When will that be? - It may be today, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow - but it will be some day. It is not important when it will be - that does not matter. There exists one day of God. The day of God is not of 24 hours like the human day. The Divine day consists of, at least, one thousand earthly years. Then how many days of this kind will form a Divine year? Thus, after you have lived 365 thousand years on the earth, you would have lived one Divine year. And when you grow old - a man of 365 thousand years, you will be a child of one year in the Divine world in need of a mother to carry you in her arms, to fondle you and be happy with you. A small Divine child knows much more then an old man who has lived 365 thousand on the earth. And than we say that the real profit of man is for him to pass from the human into the Divine world. This is possible only when man has acquired knowledge which can be of use to him in the Divine world. Man will understand the deep meaning of life only when he has passed from the human into the Divine world. This means - to live on the earth and to understand things from a Divine point of view. From that point of view every form is imbued with meaning and acquires a definite expression. And then, as a clarification of the question, the head may be compared to the Divine, while the body - to the physical world. The head is a radio-station of Divine thoughts. Every thought of this kind is the result of the food which man takes. If the food man eats does not turn into thoughts, it remains in the stomach where it forms unnecessary accumulations, which cause man different kinds of suffering.

Now I shall give you a magic formula by which you can get rid of these accumulations. This formula must not be only written on paper, or spoken with the lips, but also printed in the heart. It is difficult to write it, difficult to express it, but still more difficult to understand it. In order to say this magic formal and to profit by its power, one must do three things beforehand. The Turks say: "It is easy to call the spirits, but difficult to send them away." Therefore, it is easy to go down a well, but difficult to come out of it. When you take hold of the rope, you can go down easily, but how will you come out? Man has done the easy thing when he has come to the earth, but now the most difficult task awaits him - that of going up into the Divine world. In order that he may do that, someone must by all means, come to his aid. He has gone down the wall - an easy thing to do. The difficult thing is for him to come out of the well. When a student go to school, he does the difficult thing - he climbs from storey to storey, and/as he passes from first class into the second, the third class, etc. When the time comes for him to go out of the school, he runs down the stairs easily. In the spiritual world, however, it is just the opposite. There, all the classes are on the lower storeys, that is why it is easy to enter into the school there, but difficult to come out of if. This is the difference between the heavenly and the earthly school. Then let everyone say in himself: if a student of the earthly or heavenly school makes efforts to enter or to come out of the school, why should I not also make some effort to attain one of my ideals? He who wants to enter the school with difficulty but to go out of it easily, can be a student only on the earth. But as a student on the earth, he will have a smaller and more limited knowledge than the spiritual student. You ask: Can the human life not be set in order in a different way? - What do you want? Now you enter the school with difficulty and go out of it easily. If you want to enter into the spiritual world, you must prepare yourselves for new conditions. There it is easy to go in, but difficult to come out. And really, it is easy to come to earth, but difficult to rise to the Divine world. Man goes to God with difficulty. Why? Because it is difficult to ascend. The way to God is a way of ascending, No matter how difficult this way may be, everyone must pass it. Upward! - That is the aspiration of every soul.

You say: How shall we go to God? There are three things everyone must do. The first thing is: whether you are in a village or a city, find the poorest, most unhappy man and pay him a visit. You will sit beside him, talk with him and ask him how he lives, what is the condition of his family, etc. He will call his family in - his wife and children, and you will be polite with them, observing how they are clothed and what they need. You will talk with all in the family until you impart something beautiful to them. When you see that they are cheered up, you will go away.

The second thing you must do is to go out on a stormy day and meet the rising sun. The day may be stormy and rainy, but you will have the patience to meet the sun and then go back to your house. Only under such circumstances can you have a real idea of what the rising sun means. Only under such conditions can man feel a real pleasure that he has been able to meet the rising sun amidst the rain and storm.

The third thing you can do is to observe a small child learning to walk. By observing him consciously, you will learn a great lesson. Otherwise you will say: That child is creeping! No, that child is praying to God. He stand on his feet for a moment and then falls all of a sudden. Then he puts his toes on the floor again, gets up from the floor, raises his head and stand to pray: - God, I want to understand life. Help me to attain that! The child gets up and falls time after time and prays: — God, forgive me for not having learned my lesson, yet! All that You have created is beautiful and fine and I want to understand and study it. That child either creeps on the ground or stands up and casts joyful glances at his mother, happy that he can walk alone. Walking is a whole science. And the small child is studying that science.

I say: You have also been such children and have studied this science, but you have forgotten it. Many ask: How must we pray? - Like the small children learning to walk. - What position must we have in life? - The position of the small children learning to walk. When you become like small children, you will comprehend the meaning of life.

Thus, after you have done these three things, you will be filled with a sacred thrill and will be in a position to pronounce the great magic formula of life: God is love! As soon as you pronounce this formula in such a way, a great, unexpected wonder will take place in the world. The sun will rise in your souls in a way you have never seen it till now. All the 12 doors of heaven, which you have never seen, will open. And from there you will hear the voice of all those who have passed your way end have finished their development. They will all together pronounce the magic formula: God is love. Wherever you pass you will hear: God is Love!

What will be the great wonder which will come to pass? - All sorrows and sufferings will vanish. The ignorance you have been in until that moment will vanish. Then you will realize what sufferings and death have meant and say: All that has been an illusion, a vapour. Then your faces will shine and you will see the brightness of the great world.

The great in the world is the Divine Love. The Divine Love can be understood only when a man can write, pronounce and apply correctly the magic formula in life. He who can do these three things: visit. the poorest man, meet the rising sun in the stormiest day of his life and learn the prayer of the child learning to walk, can pronounce and comprehend the magic formula in life - God is Love!

The magic formula - God is Love - contains the new understanding of the Kingdom of God.

3. Congress talk of the Master held on the 3rd of September, 1933, 5a.m., Sofia – Izgrev